The Yankees had a much needed win over the White Sox
The Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox 4–1 on Tuesday night in Chicago after having a disappointing loss in the first game of the series to the White Sox, who are the worst team in the league. With this win and the Orioles loss, the Yankees are now in first place by half a game.
The Yankees needed to win this game since the White Sox are by far the worst team in the league with a 29–92 record, which is 63 games below .500. The Yankees pitching held the White Sox to 1–7 with runners in scoring position in this game after the White Sox went 10–17 with runners in scoring position in the first game of the series. The Yankees lost the first game of the series after going an alarming 2–18 with runners in scoring position.
There were 35 plate appearances with runners in scoring position on Monday. There was just one plate appearance with a runner in scoring position through five and a half innings Tuesday (the Yankees had two at-bats during the game with runners in scoring position). On Monday, the White Sox had a season-high in runs, hits and margin of victory. That game was an anomaly for Chicago since they have scored the fewest runs in the AL with 380 (Tampa Bay is second worst with 463), they have the fewest homers, the fewest total bases and the worst OPS. Their run differential of -244 is also by far the worst in the league.
The Yankees would not have won this game without Juan Soto. He had his first career 3-homer game and his three homers led to all the runs the Yankees scored in this game.
Soto hit a 2-run homer into the bullpen off a Jonathan Cannon sinker for his 31st homer of the season in the 3rd inning. He then hit another opposite field homer in the 5th inning and this one went 56 feet further than the first homer. This gave him his 6th multi-homer game of his season, which is the most in MLB. He now has 23 career multi-homer games, which is the second most all time before turning 26, and only Mel Ott has more before turning 26. (Ott is a Hall of Famer and 12-time All-Star who played 22 MLB seasons from 1926–1947 and had 511 homers and a .304 average and a 155 OPS+ in 2,730 games with the New York Giants.)
“That’s why he’s the greatest hitter in the game,” Aaron Judge said about Soto. “If you leave a pitch in the zone, he’ll do damage.”
Soto hit a solo homer in the 7th for his first career 3-homer game of his future Hall of Fame career. There have only been 18 4-homer games in MLB history. Soto now has the third most homers in the AL with 33, he has the fifth most RBI with 86, his .306 average is fifth best in the AL, he has the third most total bases in the AL, his OBP is second best in the AL only behind Judge, his OPS is also second best in the AL behind Judge and his WAR is third best in the AL.
He would be third in MVP voting right now behind Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. It will likely be between Soto and Witt Jr. for second place in MVP voting in the American League.
Judge went 2–3 in this game and is having an outstanding month of August with a .500 average in 11 games (18–36) with two doubles, three homers, eight RBI, a .647 OBP and a 1.453 OPS. He has been intentionally walked at least eight times.
Judge is having one of the best offensive seasons in Yankees history. His 219 wRC+ is third best in Yankees history and is only behind Babe Ruth’s 225 wRC+ in 1923 and Ruth’s 234 wRC+ in 1920. Judge is on pace the be the American League MVP for the second time in three seasons as he leads the American League in homers with 42 (six more than second place Anthony Santander), in RBI with 107 (10 more than second place Jose Ramirez), total bases (five more than second place Witt Jr.,), in OBP with a .466 (Soto is in second place with a .434), in OPS with a 1.165 (Soto is in second place) and leads the AL in WAR with a 8.1 (Witt Jr. is in second place with a 7.7). His 221 OPS+ is also the best in the American League.
“I call him the greatest hitter in the world,” Soto said about Judge. “Look at his numbers. He’s just unbelievable. He makes my job easier.”
Nestor Cortes pitched very well in this game after struggling in his previous five starts when he had an ERA of 9.26 and an opponent batting average of over .360. In this start he was in command of all his pitches and kept hitters of balance as he threw seven shutout, three hit innings while recording nine strikeouts. In this start he pitched like he did in 2022 when he had a 2.44 ERA in 28 starts and was an All-Star.
He had been struggling with his fastball in his previous five starts but it was a lot better in this start. Cortes had nasty sweeper to end first inning with strikeout. He had four strikeouts through two innings with a very good changeup and cutter. Cortes had six strikeouts in the first three innings and retired the side in order in each of the first three innings.
The White Sox first base runner was a Andrew Benintendi single up the middle with two outs in the fourth. Cortes then got Vaughn to hit a routine pop up to Soto to end fourth. Cortes struck out Korey Lee after being down in the count in the 5th. He got number eight hitter to fly out to Alex Verdugo in left for five shutout innings.
In Cortes’s previous start against the White Sox, which was on May 17, he also dominated as he threw seven innings with no earned runs. He allowed five hits and had six strikeouts in that start. He had a 2.48 ERA in his five starts in May and had a solid but not nearly as good 3.97 ERA in six starts in June. However, he went down hill in July since he had a 6.93 ERA in five starts last month and he pitched less than five innings in three of his starts in July. He totaled 19 earned runs with 30 hits in 24.2 innings in July.
This start was a real positive for Cortes since he was able to dominate for the first time since allowing one run in 6.0 innings and striking out eight against the Red Sox on July 5. Cortes had allowed at least three runs and had pitched 5.1 innings or less in each of his previous five starts before his brilliant performance on Tuesday.
Cortes showed good signs of improvement in another department since he has a 5.45 ERA overall in 13 starts on the road this season but that was a good bit higher before his seven scoreless innings in this start. He has a much better 3.05 ERA in 12 starts at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees are now 50–0 this season in games that they have led by four or more runs during a game.
Jake Cousins, who is the cousin of longtime successful NFL QB Kirk Cousins, picked up his first career save in his 73rd game. He has a 2.25 ERA in 22 games this season with 34 strikeouts in 22 innings with just nine walks allowed. He had a hitless ninth inning while walking one batter and striking out two. He has allowed just one earned run in his last eight games in a span of 7.2 innings to lower his ERA from 2.76 to 2.25.
Gleyber Torres, who went 1–4, was able to extend his hitting streak to 10 games in the second inning. He has a .308 average in those 10 games (12–39) with three RBI.
Oswaldo Cabrera, who got the start at third with Jazz Chisholm unfortunately likely going on the injured list with a UCL injury from sliding into home on Monday, was hitting .326 in his last 20 games going into Tuesday’s game. Cabrera also went 1–4 in this game.
In Cannon’s last three starts he has a sub 2.00 ERA and he got a win to end the White Sox 21-game losing streak last week. Cannon allowed three earned runs and two of Soto’s homers in his 4.2 innings pitched. Cannon, who has a perfect last name for a pitcher, was making his 13th career start and was pitching in his 15th career game.
Tuesday was the eight year anniversary of Judge’s debut when he homered in his first at-bat. If he homered on Tuesday he would have gotten to 300 homers exactly eight years after his first homer when he made his MLB debut. Since his debut eight years ago he has the most homers in MLB. He is the fifth player to have 100 walks and 40 homers through 121 team games.
