Yankees 7, White Sox 1: At least Luis Robert Jr. went deep

The Yankees (59-55) fired on nearly all cylinders to come out on top of the White Sox (46-69) Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

White Sox starter Touki Toussaint was very difficult for the Yankees to solve early on. Out of the first six batters who faced Toussaint, the only batter who did not strike out against him was Aaron Judge, who walked. Harrison Bader hit a grounder that found a hole for a single, and he stole second, but Toussaint got Anthony Volpe to ground out to end the mild threat. Meanwhile, Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt also piled up five strikeouts in his first two innings, as both offenses were struggling immensely.

The score remained 0-0 until the top of the fourth, when the Yankees finally made sharp contact against Toussaint. Gleyber Torres flew out to deep center to lead off the inning, so for the moment, the shutout was safe, but it would not remain that way for long. Giancarlo Stanton and Billy McKinney hit back-to-back soft singles, so the Yankees had two on with one out. That set up Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who launched a sharp line drive for a double that drove in the first two runs of the game. Bader collected his second single to right field to drive in Kiner-Falefa, and after two walks and a sacrifice fly by Jake Bauers, it was 4-0.

Luis Robert Jr. temporarily halted New York’s momentum in the bottom half of the fourth. Schmidt threw a sweeper that caught a ton of the plate, and Robert did not miss it. Robert blasted it out to left field for his 31st home run this season.

Another positive development was that Toussaint recovered to deliver a scoreless fifth, and rookie Declan Cronin struck out five in two excellent innings from the bullpen. However, the offense failed to score while Toussaint and Cronin shut down the Yankees. The White Sox squandered a scoring opportunity in the sixth, when Andrew Benintendi doubled, and Eloy Jiménez singled to put runners on the corners with one out. However, reliever Michael King entered the game and immediately struck out Yoán Moncada and Andrew Vaughn to retire the side.

Then, reliever Tanner Banks had a rough time in the eighth, when Kyle Higashioka launched a two-run homer to make it 6-1. Two batters later, Aaron Judge did Aaron Judge Things to extend New York’s lead to six. The White Sox went down quietly down the stretch, as there was no ninth-inning drama.

On Wednesday, these two teams will face each other in the rubber match of this three-game series. The first pitch is scheduled to take place at 7:10 p.m. Central. As usual, NBC Sports Chicago and WMVP 1000 AM will cover the game.

Six Pack of Stats

FanGraphs

Pressure Play
We have a tie for this award. Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s two-run double in the fourth and Yoán Moncada’s strikeout with two on and one out in the sixth both had a 2.37 LI.

Pressure Cooker
Andrew Vaughn, who followed up his excellent performance yesterday with an 0-for-4 game, had a 1.14 LI to lead the way.

Top Play
Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s go-ahead two-run double boosted the Yankees’ win probability from 54.6% to 75.0% (20.4% WPA).

Top Performer
Michael King’s fantastic relief appearance gave him the largest WPA (19.2%) out of everyone.

Hardest Hit
Eloy Jiménez had a long single in the eighth inning, and that left the bat at 111.3 mph to edge out the two New York homers. Aaron Judge’s exit velocity was 109.1 mph, while Kyle Higashioka’s was 108.0 mph.

Weakest Contact
The ground out by Carlos Pérez in the ninth inning had an exit velocity of only 55.0 mph.

Luckiest Hit
Eloy Jiménez hit a soft infield single in the sixth with a .170 xBA.

Toughest Out
When Gleyber Torres flew out to lead off the fourth, his fly ball registered a .630 xBA.

Longest Hit
Kyle Higashioka’s home run in the eighth inning went 415 feet, just edging out Aaron Judge’s blast right afterward (410 feet).

Magic Number: .116
The White Sox had a combined xBA of only .116 this game. Their actual batting average of .182 (6-for-33) was actually lucky given the type of contact they were making throughout most of the game. It is hard to win when that is the case.