Yankees 2, White Sox 1: Ivan Nova and bullpen big three silence Chicago bats

The Yankees were tasked with facing Jose Quintana today, on the heels of a miserable loss to Chris Sale last night. Through his last four games, Quintana had only surrendered two earned runs, but the Yankees' offense found a way to push two runs across the plate. It wasn't a lot of run support to work with, but the Yankees' pitchers were able to silence Chicago's bats to squeak out the win.

Ivan Nova made his second start since joining the rotation and it couldn't have gone much better. Through five and two-thirds innings, Nova induced a whopping 13 groundouts. He also walked a batter and collected two strikeouts. The White Sox only run came in the fourth inning when Todd Frazier hit a solo shot (his 12th home run of the season).

With two outs in the sixth inning, Nova walked Frazier and the Yankees opted to bring Dellin Betances into the game. He proceeded to strikeout Melky Cabrera then struck out the side in the seventh inning. Joe Girardi has said that he doesn't prefer to use Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman all in one game, but we got to see just that today. Miller notched two strikeouts in the eighth, and Chapman recorded two more in the ninth to pick up the save.

As for the Yankees' offense, they got on the board in the second inning after Chase Headley worked a two-out walk then Aaron Hicks drove him home with a double over Adam Eaton's head. Didi Gregorius hit a single to right to score Hicks. They had the chance to do even more damage when Austin Romine hit a fly ball to deep right-center field. Unfortunately, the ball bounced over the wall and into the bullpen which prevented Gregorius from scoring. After that, Quintana settled down and the Yankees had very few other chances, aside from the fifth inning when Gregorius hit a leadoff double but was left stranded at second.

One other thing to note: Jacoby Ellsbury entered the game in the eighth inning to play center field. The Yankees must feel confident that he is 100% healthy now since they can no longer backdate his injury if he ends up requiring a stint on the disabled list.

The Yankees will have a chance to win the series tomorrow with Masahiro Tanaka set to face off against Miguel Gonzalez at 1:05 EST.

Box score.