The Chicago White Sox were limited to four hits Sunday in a 5-1 loss to the New York Yankees at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Here are three takeaways from the series, in which the Yankees won three of four games.
1. An unusual line score capped an eventful series.
On the same day the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t get a hit but beat the Cincinnati Reds 1-0, Sunday’s Sox-Yankees game had an unusual line score of its own as the Sox surrendered five runs on just two hits.
The Sox carried a one-hitter into the ninth inning and had retired 19 straight but were trailing 3-1.
It all traced back to the second. Sox starter Michael Kopech retired the first two batters. Then came a tough stretch of a walk, a single and three more walks. The last two walks in the sequence came with the bases loaded, resulting in runs. A wild pitch brought in the third run.
“Just tried to get kind of cute and nibble a little bit,” Kopech said. “And then they had some good takes and after that I tried to get a little bit aggressive because I realized they weren’t. It didn’t pay off for me and I fell behind more guys. Kind of lost that inning on my own.”
Kopech threw 41 pitches in the inning. He rebounded and went six innings, allowing the three runs on one hit with four walks and three strikeouts.
“I just had a better focus,” Kopech said. “I didn’t really have much of my stuff today, if anything. Those other innings I was able to remain focused and throw to the target and execute as well as I could. I didn’t execute very well either, but I threw strikes and that goes a long way.”
He became the sixth pitcher in franchise history to take a loss despite allowing one hit or fewer in six-plus innings.
Reliever José Ruiz retired the first two Yankees in the ninth, extending the streak to 21 straight, before walking Josh Donaldson. Joey Gallo followed with the Yankees’ second and final hit — a two-run homer to right.
The series began with “some ‘see it to believe it’ stuff,” manager Tony La Russa said Thursday after the Yankees broke a tie and scored seven runs with two outs in the eighth to win 15-7.
It wrapped up Sunday with a box score you don’t see every day.
“Walks are like hits,” La Russa said Sunday. “That’s something (the Yankees) do well. They’re very aggressive, but up and down their lineup they generally have good plate discipline.”
2. The White Sox need more plate discipline.
Luis Robert singled to right with two outs in the first inning Sunday, extending his hitting streak to 13 games. The Sox didn’t have another baserunner against Yankees starter Nestor Cortes until a two-out single by Tim Anderson in the sixth.
Cortes allowed one run on three hits with seven strikeouts in eight innings. The only run came on a homer in the eighth by Adam Engel.
Cortes did not surrender a walk.
“He just makes pitches the whole day,” said Sox left fielder AJ Pollock, who was 0-for-3. “I don’t think we did a good job of making him uncomfortable. And he made pitches. So you’ve got to do one or the other — try to make him uncomfortable and he cracks and you might get a chance to get some runs off him, or if he doesn’t, you tip your cap.”
“Uncomfortable” isn’t easy with the control Cortes displayed.
“That’s the thing, he was spotting the ball very well today,” Pollock said. “Next time if we face him, try to find ways to look for the right approach off him. And if he deals again, tip your cap. You don’t want to give your pitcher no support. It doesn’t feel great.”
The Sox had some positives at the plate in the series, such as home runs Thursday and Saturday by Yoán Moncada and clutch at-bats in the ninth Saturday by Anderson (single) and Moncada (walk) ahead of a game-winning single by Robert in a 3-2 victory.
Overall, La Russa stressed plate discipline.
“At times we do a little more chasing, especially before two strikes when the count is in our favor,” La Russa said. “We can improve on that. The days we hit good are when we’re (showing discipline).”
3. Dallas Keuchel and Tony La Russa chatted after Keuchel expressed disappointment in not pitching the 6th inning Saturday.
The Sox surrendered 15 and 10 runs in the first two games of the series, with a combined five home runs by Giancarlo Stanton (three two-run homers) and Aaron Judge (two solo homers).
Keuchel gave the team just what it needed in Game 3, limiting the Yankees to four hits in five scoreless innings. He didn’t factor in the decision but put the Sox in position for the 3-2 win on Robert’s RBI single in the ninth.
After the 86-pitch outing, Keuchel said he would have liked to have gone longer.
“I’m a little disappointed in five,” he said. “My job is to go out there and throw as many as I can. I thought (after 86) pitches I had enough to at least go six. With how many games we’re playing (17 games in 17 days), I thought I had at least 100 pitches. That didn’t happen. I’m not very happy with that, but that’s the competitor.”
La Russa responded before Sunday’s game.
“We, the team, are mostly appreciative and excited about the five innings he pitched,” La Russa said. “His history, since I’ve been here, in the sixth inning has been not good.”
Keuchel pitched a season-high six innings May 8 in Boston. He allowed two runs, both in the sixth, on eight hits in the 3-2 win.
“If you remember the Boston game, we were up (3-0),” La Russa said. “That was the day our bullpen was beat up. He gave up two in the sixth. With the guys that were coming up (right-handers Stanton, Donaldson and Gleyber Torres). … But realistically, whether there are observational analytics or the real analytics, after the fifth inning, somewhere in that pitch count, stuff changes.
“You look at that (Yankees) lineup, I wish all our decisions were that easy. And I appreciate the competitor being disappointed.”
The score is one factor La Russa looks at in those situations.
“You check the numbers (Keuchel had a 12.27 ERA in the sixth over 19 games last season). Maybe he’s not aware of it. So I’ll make him aware of it. But it just hasn’t worked, and it didn’t work against Boston.”
Keuchel’s next start is Thursday in Kansas City. With Lucas Giolito on the COVID-19-related injured list as of Sunday, Monday’s starter against the Royals is to be determined.
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Source: Berkshire mont
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