For the first time all season, the Yankees failed to win a start coming off of a loss. But Monday night’s defeat against the White Sox was hardly the ace’s fault.
The Yankees repeatedly squandered scoring opportunities as they fell 5-1 to lowly Chicago, stranding 13 men on base and twice leaving the bases loaded. The most electric display of the night came from Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who was with home plate umpire Laz Diaz.
Struggling White Sox starter Dylan Cease walked seven batters, including three consecutively to begin the second inning. He worked out of the bases-loaded jam by coaxing shallow flyouts from Anthony Volpe and Ben Rortvedt and a slow groundout from Jake Bauers.
The Yankees drew at least one walk in each of the first four innings against Cease, who finished second in AL Cy Young Award voting last season but came into Monday’s game with a 4.61 ERA this year. He served up seven runs over 1.2 innings in his previous outing against the Rangers.
Cease pitched 5.1 shutout frames and didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning, when DJ LeMahieu singled. Harrison Bader and Volpe followed with back-to-back singles against reliever Brent Honeywell, but a short flyout by pinch-hitter Isiah Kiner-Falefa and another Bauers groundout ended that bases-loaded threat.
The Yankees loaded the bases again in the seventh inning with nobody out, and a Billy McKinney sacrifice fly scored their lone run, making the score 2-1. But with Gleyber Torres representing the tying run at third base, LeMahieu and Bader both struck out.
“We had our chances tonight and just couldn’t capitalize,” .
Boone’s animated argument with Diaz occurred after a third-strike call against Volpe. Boone drew a line in the dirt near home plate, then imitated Diaz’s strikeout call. He said afterward his frustration stemmed from calls all night.
The Yankees — — entered Monday with a 9-0 record in games started by Cole after a loss. Cole allowed four runs — two of which came on an Andrew Vaughn second-inning home run — over seven innings and fell to 10-3. The final two runs charged to Cole scored after Tommy Kahnle entered in relief.
The loss to the White Sox (46-68) came a day after the Yankees drew 12 walks but left 15 men on base against the Astros. The Yankees fell to 58-55 and are 5.5 games back of the final AL Wild Card spot.
Monday kicked off a nine-game road trip for the Yankees, who continue their three-game series in Chicago on Tuesday night with Clarke Schmidt (7-6, 4.35 ERA) set to pitch against the White Sox’s (1-4, 3.92 ERA).
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