This would’ve been one of the most unacceptable acceptable losses in recent Yankees memory. The sort of game you shrug off in June, or with a comfortable lead in September, but which would have felt ultra-painful given the Yankees’ current circumstances.
Instead, the Yankees wake up this morning and can reflect on one of their best wins of this crazy season, a 6-4 comeback job over the lousy White Sox at Yankee Stadium that kept the heat on American League wild-card second seed Tampa Bay and vaulted the Yankees (74-64) back over Baltimore (73-64). And it happened because their lineup’s occupants, many of whom have been guilty of overzealousness, displayed impressive grace under pressure.
“It’s just grinding out at-bats and taking what they give you, in a tough situation and an important situation,” Joe Girardi said.
“Great comeback,” Eduardo Nunez said. “We all fight together.”
Nunez finished the job that was started by Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano and extended by Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson, as White Sox skipper Robin Ventura tried to play chess and saw every logical move backfire.
As the Yankees trailed the White Sox, 4-1, to start the eighth, there was little reason to think they would wind up victorious. White Sox ace Chris Sale still occupied the mound, the lefty had allowed just a run and three hits in his first seven innings and at that juncture, he owned a career 0.71 ERA against the Yankees. He started the eighth by striking out Brett Gardner.
Then Jeter (of course) lined a single to center field, and Cano followed with a long, opposite-field double, sending Jeter to third. Sale, having thrown 114 pitches, was done, and that’s when the inning grew particularly compelling.
Ventura went to his effective right-hander Nate Jones, who threw two sliders for two strikes to Alfonso Soriano. We could see where this was going, couldn’t we? After all, Soriano had two strikeouts for the night, 129 this season and a massive 1,705 for his career.
Jones threw a third straight slider, and this one didn’t bite. Soriano, thinking small, sent a grounder up the middle that scored both Jeter and Cano, closing the Yankees within 4-3.
Next up was A-Rod, whose problem isn’t as much whiffing as choking, as you might have heard. He has appeared pretty relaxed this season, however — you also might have heard that he has a lot of off-the-field stuff going on — and in this at-bat, he fell behind, 1-and-2, before looking at two balls to work the count full. In came another Jones slider, and A-Rod, also approaching his at-bat modestly, stroked a single to center field, moving Soriano to third.
Girardi pinch hit Curtis Granderson for Vernon Wells, and Ventura countered by lifting Jones for left-hander Donnie Veal.
“Grandy’s been a guy who puts the ball in the air,’’ Girardi said. “He’s a guy who can hit deep fly balls. The least you’re looking for is a sac fly.’’
What you don’t want, obviously, is a strikeout, and Granderson has been known to register a few of those — 515 in four seasons as a Yankee. Granderson looked at strike one, then at three straight balls, and he smoothly offered at a two-seam fastball, sending it into center field to bring home Soriano with the tying run and advance A-Rod to third.
After Mark Reynolds struck out against Veal, Ventura turned to former Mets prospect Matt Lindstrom to go after Nunez, who is not exactly known for an ability to work the count (just 17 walks in 264 plate appearances this season) and whose first-inning error helped the White Sox jump off to a 1-0 lead. At 1-and-1, Nunez ripped a bullet to left field that he legged out for a double, scoring both A-Rod and Granderson to break the tie with a vengeance.
It was, in all, a breathtaking sequence. Remember that the Yankees, in recent seasons, and Soriano, for his entire career, have been accused of being too homer-happy. On this night, they were happy just to keep the line moving.
“Great at-bat by Sori, great at-bat by Al. I think they both got to two strikes,” Girardi said. “… It was just one good at-bat after another.”
Can the Yankees continue to put up one good win after another? If they can, they’ll look back at this one as one of the most important and impressive.