While losing Aaron Judge to an injury for an extended period is hardly ideal, the New York Yankees are finding ways to compensate at the plate.
Coming off of a stellar offensive game, the Yankees will seek a fourth straight win Wednesday night when they host the Chicago White Sox, who hope to rebound from one of their worst showings of late — a 12-2 loss in the series opener at New York.
The Yankees are 8-4 since learning Judge has a fractured rib. New York lost three of the first four games without Judge and has won seven of eight since.
Other players have stepped up in the absence of Judge, who last played on May 31.
Ben Rice has three of his 20 homers since Judge went down and hit a two-run homer on Tuesday. So did Paul Goldschmidt, who is batting .412 during an eight-game hitting streak. Rookie Spencer Jones is batting .318 in June and also homered in the series opener.
The White Sox are 5-4 in a stretch of 11 straight games against the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and Yankees. Chicago was held to four hits Tuesday and conceded double-digit runs for the first time since May 23 vs. San Francisco.
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole, who got the win in the opener, said the White Sox are tough.
“They’re putting a lot of pressure on the opponent with quality at-bats up and down the lineup,” he said. “They’re using their individual strengths well, doing what they do in the box, grinding out pitches, spoiling pitches, guys hitting for power, guys hitting behind runners. So it’s dynamic in a sense that you can be deadly in a handful of different ways.”
The White Sox enter the game Wednesday deadlocked with the Cleveland Guardians for first place in the American League Central. After three 100-loss seasons, the White Sox have made baseball fun again on the South Side, buoyed by a crop of young players being led by a few veterans.
One of those veterans, Andrew Benintendi, hit his fifth home run in his past 14 games — one of just six baserunners for Chicago on Tuesday. Rookie first baseman Jacob Gonzalez failed to make a play in the third inning, opening the floodgates for the Yankees, who scored four runs that inning and followed with six in the fourth.
A natural shortstop filling the gap at first due to the hamstring injury to slugger Munetaka Murakami, Gonzalez was caught playing too far off the base when Anthony Volpe hit an infield single ahead of a two-run single by Cody Bellinger.
Gonzalez wasn’t at first base to finish the play when Volpe’s ground ball was fielded, and Volpe was credited with a hit.
“I thought it was going to get through, so I went to cut off [the throw] home,” Gonzalez said. “I should’ve went to the base first, then the cut off. I feel really bad. It’s never going to happen again.”
On Wednesday, left-hander Carlos Rodon (2-2, 3.19 ERA), who spent seven seasons with the White Sox, will pitch for the Yankees. He is 2-0 with a 2.50 ERA in his past three starts and allowed three runs on four hits in six innings last Wednesday in an 8-4 win at Cleveland in his most recent start.
Rodon is 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA in three career starts against the White Sox.
Left-hander Anthony Kay (6-1, 4.34 ERA), who is 5-0 with a 3.77 ERA in his past nine starts, will pitch for the White Sox on Wednesday.
Kay has allowed two earned runs or less seven times during his unbeaten streak, including Friday, when he allowed two runs on four hits in five innings in an 8-2 win over the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers.
Kay is 0-0 with a 7.71 ERA in four career appearances (one start) against the Yankees. He made all of those appearances as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays between 2019-22.
–Field Level Media
