White Sox, Led By Giolito, Take Opener From Yankees, Who Announce Judge To Go On IL

 

Lucas Giolito firing one in against Giancarlo Stanton in the first inning, with the eerie sky from the Canadian wildfires overhead. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Chicago White Sox beat the Yankees, 3-2,  on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, as they got six no-hit innings from starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, which they could expect, and two home runs from catcher Seby Zavala, an  unexpected thing, since he matched his season total in one night.

The Yankees' lineup was without Aaron Judge for the second straight night, as he was still getting over injuring his big toe while making his miraculous catch into the bullpen fence on Saturday night in Los Angeles. 

Before the game, Yankees Manager Aaron Boone announced that Judge had tests Monday and that his right fielder would be meeting with Dr. Christopher Ahmad during the game.

As the eerie air from the Canadian wildfires hung over Yankee Stadium, the results of that meeting also hung over the Yankees as they went through the game.

Boone gave the update in his postgame press conference: "He is going to go on the IL. He's got a contusion and a sprain of the ligament, so he had a PRP shot, and I mean, the biggest thing is trying to get the swelling out of there; had some improvements today, but now we'll just see where we are in the coming weeks - or days - and then the biggest thing is getting the swelling out of there now."

When Boone was asked definitely that there's no break or fracture in the toe, he said "No," but his use of the term "weeks" in assessing the injury could lead one to think they are concerned that this will linger the rest of the year like D.J. LeMahieu's toe injury did towards the end of last season.

In the game, Chicago got out to the early lead against Yankee starter Clarke Schmidt when Zavala hit one into the right field corner that snaked around the foul pole for a solo shot.

Then, in the fifth, the Yankees flashed some leather, as Josh Donaldson went deep into the hole, along the third base line, to ron Andrew Vaughn of a hit, and then Schmidt reached out and grabbed a comebacker from Gavin Sheets.

Then, Romy Gonzalez dunked a far-weaker hit ball into left field, and bring up Zavala. 

This time, the Chicago catcher hit a no-doubter into the seats in left for a two-run shot, which gave Chicago a three-nothing lead. Zavala entered this one with two home runs and seven RBI, and he ended it with four HR and 10 RBI.

Meanwhile, that was more than enough for Giolito, who threw six no-hit innings, as scattered three walks and struck out seven as he improved to 5-4, with a 3.75 ERA (earned run average). He had to exit after six innings, as he hit the 100-pitch mark.

Boone said of Giolito's performance, "It seemed like he stayed out of the middle of the plate a lot. I thought we had the right at-bats against him, made him work, got his pitch count up, a lot of three-ball counts, worked some walks, but weren't able to ding him at all, you know, and I think that was a result of him, you know, staying out of the heart of the plate. I thought he did a good job, you know, moving both sides, but also up and down, you know, just, again, I thought we had some tough at-bats against him, just couldn't quite finish him off, and he just, he was tough tonight."

The Yankees broke the no-hitter and shutout in the seventh inning against Chicago reliever Joe Kelly when Isiah Kiner-Falefa doubled into left-center field, which brought in Willie Calhoun, who drew a two-out walk to keep the inning alive for IKF. 

Donaldson got a solo home run in the ninth to pull the Yankees within 3-2, but Liam Hendriks was able to get out of it and earn his first save of the season since he returned from his successful battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.