Aroldis Chapman’s struggles continued during the first game of a Sunday double-header against the White Sox, as he gave up 2 runs in the 9th inning of a tied contest to give Chicago a 3–1 win in the Bronx.
With questions surrounding Chapman’s future as the team’s long-term closer, he took the mound in the 9th inning, and gave up a home run to Chicago outfielder A.J. Pollock on the 2nd pitch of his outlining — coming off a 95 mph fastball high and inside.
The reliever then walked Andrew Vaughn, before tossing 2 wild pitches to allow the base runner to advance to 3rd base.
Outfielder Adam Engel then smacked a double to left field off a Chapman slider to left field, allowing the 2nd runner of the inning to score, which put the White Sox up 3–1.
Manager Aaron Boone, who has stuck by Chapman despite his struggles of late, had seen enough after that, and pulled his closer in favor of righty reliever Ron Marinaccio, who found the next 2 outs to get the team out of the inning.
For more coverage of Aroldis Chapman and the Yankees, head to amNY.com.
Meanwhile, on offense, the Yankees were uncharacteristically quiet, as the team with the MLB’s best recorded just 8 hits, and struck out 9 times.
Aaron Judge, who was slated as the team’s designated hitter for the contest, played a solid game — securing 3 hits, including his MLB-best 15th home run of the season to tie the game in the 8th inning at 1 run each.
Judge’s performance came mostly in vain, however, as the Yankees failed to muster consecutive hits, and stranded 8 runners on base throughout the low-scoring contest.
The loss brings the Bronx Bombers to a 29–11 record heading into the 2nd game of the double-header. A win on Sunday night would give New York their 10th-straight series win, while a loss would come as their 3rd loss in 4 games.
