Defensive miscues, stadium dimensions play a bigger part in loss than poor pitching
Piecing together a bullet-point recap:
*We knowScott Carroll doesn't miss bats -- he didn't strike out a single Yankee -- and that leaves him extremely vulnerable to weird things happening. In this case, he gave up five runs (four earned) over six innings, and he didn't deserve the majority of them.
- The first run scored because Carlos Sanchez couldn't give Alexei Ramirez a good feed to force out the lead runner, which eventually scored on a double play ball.
- The Yankees scored two more in the fourth, starting when Alejandro De Aza lost Brian McCann's lazy fly ball in the sun, resulting in a leadoff double. The second run that crossed the plate was on Carroll, but the non-error error changed the inning.
- Carlos Beltran's solo shot scraped the top of Yankee Stadium's short porch in right field.
*After being held scoreless over the last eight innings on Friday's game, the White Sox offense failed to get the big hit again. They struck for a run in the second on back-to-back doubles by Conor Gillaspie and Alexei Ramirez to take a 1-0 lead, but could only scratch across single runs in the fifth (Jose Abreu single) and seventh (Sanchez RBI groundout).
*The Sox went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners. They took some bad swings with runners on scoring position, but Adam Dunn put a surprisingly good swing on a Dellin Betances fastball with runners on the corners and two outs in the seventh inning, but he just didn't get enough loft on it. Ichiro Suzuki caught it on the warning track.
*Matt Lindstrom pitched two scoreless innings, although he required two sliding catches in the outfield in the seventh, and he started a 1-6-3 double play to erase a leadoff HBP in the eighth.
*Though miscues led to two-plus runs, the Sox also made a surprising amount of highlight-worthy plays. It's possible the best play of the game didn't result in an out, as Sanchez made an incredible barehand pick-and-throw while ranging to his right. Alas, Suzuki was the baserunner, so he beat the on-target cross-body throw by a step.
Record: 59-70 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights