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Yankees 4, White Sox 3: Yankees rally from three down in ninth to win

I have no idea how the Yankees won this game.

Jonathan Daniel

For eight innings, the Yankees couldn't do a thing. A bad first inning from Vidal Nuno put the Yankees in an early deficit. And while Nuno settled down, the offense struggled to do anything against John Danks. Then out of nowhere a ninth inning rally happened. Down to their last out, the Yankees came all the way back to tie the game. And then in extras, Jacoby Ellsbury (who started the rally in the ninth) gave the Yankees their first lead. From nowhere, the Yankees had pulled out a 4-3 win over the White Sox.

The White Sox struck early with a couple runs in the first inning. Adam Eaton, Gordon Beckham and Dayan Viciedo led off the bottom of the first with three straight hits, giving the White Sox a 1-0 lead before Nuno recorded an out. A sacrifice fly by Adam Dunn and a ground out by Alexi Ramirez allowed two more runs to score, and by the time the first inning was over, the White Sox led 3-0.

In the second inning, the White Sox threatened to add more. It looked like they would have second and third with no one out after Adrian Nieto escaped a run down after a single. However, he would be called out for running out of the baseline. That led to Robin Ventura coming out and arguing and eventually getting ejected. With a man on third and one out, the White Sox couldn't bring the run home, keeping the score at 3-0.

After that Nuno settled down. He gave up a couple more hits, but the White Sox offense couldn't get anything real going. Which is good, except for the part that the Yankees' offense went into a deep slumber. John Ryan Murphy reached base on what was originally ruled a single, but was later changed to a fielding error on Marcus Semien. The Yankees didn't record a hit until a Mark Teixeira ground-rule double in the fourth.

After Teixeira's double, no Yankee reached base until the eighth inning when Murphy singled. Brendan Ryan also singled, but Brett Gardner then flew out to end that threat.

Nuno came back out for the eighth inning but after allowing a hit to Eaton, that was it. Nuno went seven innings, allowing three runs on nine hits and a walk. Not that this is saying much, but it was his best start of the season.

Matt Daley relieved Nuno and got two outs on a sacrifice bunt and a ground out. Those two outs moved Eaton to third and brought Dunn to the plate. Girardi elected to go back to the bullpen and brought Matt Thornton in. Thornton struck out Dunn to keep the deficit at three runs headed into the ninth.

In the ninth inning, the Yankees finally decided to do something. With one out, Ellsbury picked up a single. Two batters later, Alfonso Soriano doubled, scoring Ellsbury and making it 3-1. Yangervis Solarte then singled, scoring Soriano, making it 3-2. All of the sudden, the Yankees brought the go ahead run to the plate. Ichiro Suzuki then kept it going by drawing a walk. That brought pinch-hitter Brian McCann to the plate. On the first pitch, McCann blooped a single, to score a pinch-running Kelly Johnson. Out of nowhere, the game was tied. Ryan couldn't give the Yankees the lead, but the Yankees had somehow come all the way back.

Dellin Betances came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth. Betances threw an easy 1-2-3 inning to send the game to extras.

In the top of the tenth, the Gardner and Derek Jeter went down in order, bringing Ellsbury back to the plate. After starting the rally in the ninth, Ellsbury gave them the lead in the tenth. Ellsbury hit a solo home run over the right field wall to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. After looking dead and buried, the Yankees were now on the verge of a win.

After blowing the save last night, David Robertson would get a chance to redeem himself. Robertson struck out the first two before allowing a single to Eaton. That kept the game alive and brought Beckham to the plate. Beckham worked a full count, but Robertson struck him out to seal a weird, weird 4-3 win for the Yankees. YCBS.

The Yankees finish off their trip to Chicago with one last game against the White Sox tomorrow. Masahiro Tanaka will get the start. Go Tanak.

Box score.