Old nemesis Dallas Keuchel pitched 5 shutout innings to put the Yankees in a hole that they dug out from with late-inning rallies in the 8th and 9th to tie the game 2-2 — but Aroldis Chapman allowed a walk and 2 singles in the 9th for the loss.
“Keuchel was good, man,” said Yankee manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “Cutter, change, sinker. I thought he was pretty sharp. We knew he was coming off a good game in his last start against Boston. We had a couple of chances, and he was able to make some big pitches.”
1. Monty Struggles But Doesn’t Get Loss
Jordan Montgomery started for the Yanks and he historically gets little run support. This game was no different in that regard as Keuchel was blanking the Yanks.
What was different was that Monty struggled a bit. But he still laid down a decent line: 4.1 innings, 2 runs. The late-inning Yankee rallies to tie the game meant Monty didn’t get the loss at least.
Three singles in the 1st inning plated a run to make it Chicago 1 NY 0. In the 3rd a Yoan Moncada homer made it 2-0 Chisox.
Monty walked 2 in the 4th but got a double play to end the inning. It could have been worse had Joey Gallo not started the inning with a terrific diving catch to turn a single into an out.
Joey G flashin' that gold glove 👏 pic.twitter.com/XJdtLiBBO8
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 15, 2022
“Monty fell a little out of rhythm tonite,” said Boone afterwards. “That said, he gave us a chance. Two runs into the 5th on a night that was a little bit of a struggle for him. But he made some pitches when he needed to, got a big double play ball to end the 4th. On a night where it wasn’t perfect for him, gave us a chance.”
In the 5th Monty struck out Moncada but walked another batter and was lifted at 86 pitches for Clarke Schmidt.
2. Schmidt Terrific Again
Clarke Schmidt relieved Monty in the 5th and pitched terrific ball again — 2.2 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs. He had just returned from AAA Scranton where he had been sent to ‘stretch out’ — get starts and pitch deep into games.
Schmidt is now 2-2 0.82 on the season after 11 innings. He’s tied for most decisions on the Yanks (with Jameson Taillon who is 3-1, and Clay Holmes who is 4-0).
Schmidt has been a heralded Yankee prospect for several years and recently (end of last year and this year) finally is showing it on the MLB level. He is 26 years old — the age when many good pitchers break through.
After Schmidt pitched thru the 7th inning, Clay Holmes came in to pitch a shutout 8th and lower his ERA to 0.52 in 17.1 innings.
3. Old Nemesis Keuchel
Meanwhile 34-year-old Dallas Keuchel was setting down the Yanks with his 82-MPH breaking stuff. NY was getting on base but Keuchel was getting double plays or groundouts — enough to snake through.
The Yanks got:
- a single in the 1st (DJ LeMahieu),
- a double (Giancarlo Stanton) and walk (Joey Gallo) in the 2nd,
- a single in the 4th (Stanton again), and
- in the 5th loaded the bases with 2 outs on a single (Isiah Kiner-Falefa) and 2 walks (LeMahieu and Aaron Judge) — but Keuchel got Anthony Rizzo to groundout to end the threat.
The White Sox then brought in Kendall Graveman who throws 97-MPH sinkers. He shut the Yanks out for 2 more innings. He retired all he faced sans a Josh Donaldson single in the 7th, snuffed immediately by a Gleyber Torres groundball doubleplay.
4. Yankees Rally in 8th
Down 2-0 in the top of the 8th, the Yanks got a run against another old Yankee nemesis Joe Kelly (big Derek Jeter fan).
Consecutive 1-out singles by Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo, and Giancarlo Stanton plated a run to make it 2-1 and send Kelly to the showers.
On the board courtesy of Big G 💪 pic.twitter.com/o1OFzlPIsl
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 15, 2022
White Sox ace reliever Liam Hendriks came in to strike out Donaldson and Gleyber Torres to end the inning.
5. Yankees Rally in 9th
But the Yanks had forced Chicago to go with Liam Hendriks an inning early — which set him up for being hittable in the 9th, his second inning of pitching.
Joey Gallo led off the top of the 9th with a walk, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa rapped a single to right — putting 1st and 3rd, nobody out.
Kyle Higashioka obliged with a sac fly to left — but Kiner-Falefa tried to dash to 3rd and was thrown out.
Kyle Higashioka and the Yankees tie it up in the top of the 9th! 🔥#YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/wmsTKOa88Z
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) May 15, 2022
That ended up being huge.
Hendriks struck out LeMahieu to end the inning.
6. Chappy Loses It
Aroldis Chapman got the first out of the 9th but then yielded a single to Tim Anderson, walked Moncada, and allowed a single to Luis Robert just under and past a diving LeMahieu into right field for the game winner.
Etcetera
Because of the rope-a-dope pitching of Keuchel and the groundouts and double plays, the Yankee batters produced good slash lines despite only scoring 2 runs:
- Aaron Judge went 1-3 with a walk raising his average to .306 (.380 OBP).
- Giancarlo Stanton went 3-4 to raise his average to .300 (.336 OBP)
- Isiah Kiner-Falefa went 2-4 and is at .278 (.324 OBP)
- DJ LeMahieu went 1-4 and is at .281 (.359 OBP)
- Josh Donaldson and Anthony Rizzo both went 1-4
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354743
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