Yankees rally in the sixth for 2-1 win over White Sox

Source: FanGraphs

On Saturday, two runs were just enough. The Yankees rallied in the sixth inning for a 2-1 win over the White Sox in the third game of their four-game series. Give the pitching staff a gold star for this one. It’s Saturday, so let’s recap with bullet points:

• Not A Starter: Adam Warren’s third start back in the rotation was his best even though he allowed three hits and a run in the first inning. He escaped the jam, completed six full innings, and picked up a well-earned win. Warren struck out four and walked three — all three walks came in the fifth inning too — while throwing 88 pitches. After the messy first, Warren retired 16 of the final 19 men he faced. That’ll do nicely. Probably time to ship him back to the bullpen.
• Two Two-Baggers: The offense sleepwalked through the first five innings of Saturday’s game, mustering three scattered singles and two walks. They were able to break the game open scratch across two runs in the sixth thanks to back-to-back doubles. Jacoby Ellsbury started the inning with a single, stole second, then scored on Chase Headley’s ground-rule double into the left-center field gap. Alex Rodriguez drove in Headley with a ground-rule double off third baseman Mike Olt. It was a hard-hit grounder that deflected off Olt’s glove and hopped into the stands. That works. The Yankees will take runs however they can get ’em these days.
• The Formula: One-run lead after six innings? We all knew what was coming next. Joe Girardi was going to his big three relievers. Justin Wilson struck out two in a perfect seventh, Dellin Betances got three quick outs in a perfect eighth, and Andrew Miller struck out two in a perfect ninth. Those three hits off Warren in the first inning? They were Chicago’s only hits of the day. Warren & Co. retired the final 13 White Sox batters.
• Leftovers: The Yankees had seven hits, including two each by Ellsbury and Rob Refsnyder. It’s too bad they waiting so long to give Refsnyder Brendan Ryan’s platoon at-bats at second … Headley, A-Rod, and Didi Gregorius also had hits while A-Rod, Carlos Beltran, Chris Young (two), and Brett Gardner drew walks … and finally, the Yankees have set a new AL single-season record with 573 strikeouts by their relievers. The old record? The 2014 Yankees with 571.

Here are the box score, video highlights, updated standings, and postseason odds. The magic number to clinch a postseason spot is four and the tragic number in the AL East is five. Here are our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages. The Yankees and White Sox wrap up this four-game series Sunday afternoon. It’ll be Luis Severino against Erik Johnson, not Jeff Samardzija.