New York Yankees Recap: Carlos Beltran Provides The Offense In 3-2 Win Over White Sox

The New York Yankees (84-62) returned home to the Bronx after losing two of three games to Toronto at the Rogers Centre. Before tonight’s game against the Chicago White Sox (72-81), the team had a great ceremony as they honored Yankee great and Hall-of-Famer Yogi Berra, who passed away Tuesday night.

As for the game itself, Michael Pineda (12-8, 3.99 ERA) held the White Sox to one run over six innings and the offense did just enough to get him a win. Carlos Beltran’s three-run homer off Chris Sale (12-11, 3.48) in the bottom of the third was all the offense the Yankees needed as they beat Chicago, 3-2. With the win, New York is now three games behind the Blue Jays in the AL East and their magic number to clinch a postseason spot is six.

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Jacoby Ellsbury led off the third inning by reaching base via a hit by pitch. Three batters later, after Alex Rodriguez drew a walk, Beltran hit a 2-2 fastball over the wall in left field for a three-run homer. Beltran’s 18th of the season and his third home run in his last six games gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead. Plus, Rodriguez scored the 2,000th run of his career on the home run, becoming only the eighth player in Major League history to accomplish that feat. Earlier in the inning, Ellsbury made history of his own as he stole the 300th base of his career.

Pineda was cruising through the first five innings, but he made one mistake in the top of the sixth. Trayce Thompson led off the inning by hitting a 2-1 fastball into the second deck in left field for a solo home run. Thompson’s fifth home run of the year cut New York’s lead to 3-1. The Yankees’ right-hander went six innings, gave up one run on eight hits, struck out six batters, and did not walk anyone on 89 pitches (70 strikes) in the win.

With everybody available in the bullpen today, Joe Girardi went to his late inning formula and used Justin Wilson to start the seventh. Wilson got the first two batters out in the inning, but an Adam Eaton walk and a Jose Abreu single made Girardi go to Dellin Betances.

Betances showed some problems with command as he walked Melky Cabrera to load the bases and then walked Thompson after being ahead 0-2 to give the White Sox their second run. He did get out of the inning by striking out Adam LaRoche. Then, in the eighth, Betances gave up a leadoff single to Alexei Ramirez, but he was able to get Carlos Sanchez to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to get out of further trouble.

Andrew Miller was called on to pitch the ninth inning. Even though Miller gave up a one out single to Adam Eaton, he was able to escape trouble by striking out two batters in the inning to pick up his 35th save of the season.

Next Game: The New York Yankees will play the second game of their four game series against the Chicago White Sox tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium. You can catch the game on YES at 7:05 PM ET. CC Sabathia (5-9, 4.80) gets the start for the Yankees against Carlos Rodon (8-6, 3.78) for the White Sox in a battle of left-handers.

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