Yankees get help from White Sox defense in win

An offensive explosion?

Relatively speaking.

The Yankees reached not recently chartered territory Saturday in a 5-3 victory over the White Sox in front of 47,594 at the Stadium, many of whom were in their seats an hour early for the pregame ceremony honoring Joe Torre.

It marked the first time since Aug. 8 the Yankees (66-61), who can go 4-2 on this home stand with a win against the White Sox and ace Chris Sale Sunday, scored five runs.

"It could be a good home stand," Joe Girardi said. "We have a tough opponent tomorrow, we know that. But we have to find a way to win this game and have a good home stand."

Incompetent work in the field by the White Sox (59-70) contributed to three runs but the Yankees were happy to take all gifts thrown their way and Chicago was in a giving mood.

As Brian McCann, the beneficiary of one of the misplays, put it: "Take 'em any way you can get 'em."

Hiroki Kuroda again was solid, allowing two runs and five hits in six innings. The 39-year-old righthander, 2-2 with a 3.58 ERA in his previous six starts, walked two and struck out six. "I wasn't as sharp as last time," said Kuroda, who allowed two runs and four hits in 6 2/3 innings last Sunday against the Rays. "But I was able to hang in there."

There were fielding miscues in each of the three innings in which the Yankees scored, starting in the second when they tied the score at 1.

Mark Teixeira walked on four pitches to start the inning and went to second when second baseman Carlos Sanchez booted a routine grounder that likely would have resulted in a double play. The sloppiness continued when the White Sox failed to properly play Martin Prado's bunt, scored as a hit, which loaded the bases. Prado was huge a second straight game, going 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. He is 9-for-20 on the home stand.

Chase Headley grounded into a 6-6-3 double play, which brought in Teixeira to tie it at 1.

It stayed that way until the fourth when McCann led off by looping a fly ball down the leftfield line that Alejandro De Aza lost in the sun at the last moment for a gift double. Teixeira walked and Carlos Beltran, who later homered, smacked a single to right. Teixeira, however, did not see third-base coach Rob Thomson give the stop sign to the stone-footed McCann, and steamed ahead to third. He was out in a 9-2-6 rundown.

"Tex followed the throw, which you're taught to read the throw, but you have to pick up what the guy's doing in front of you," Girardi said of Teixeira.

Prado, however, came through, yanking a two-run double down the leftfield line for a 3-1 lead.

Beltran's 15th homer of the season, to lead off the sixth, made it 4-2. The Yankees added on later in the inning when catcher Adrian Nieto whiffed on rightfielder Avisail Garcia's throw home that looked as if it would get Prado, tagging from third on Stephen Drew's short fly ball.

The White Sox got a run off Shawn Kelley in the seventh, making it 5-3, and Adam Warren pitched a perfect eighth. David Robertson pitched a scoreless ninth to convert his 22nd save chance in a row and move to 34-for-36 this season.

"It's been great, I think the energy's been great," Beltran said of the club the last three days. "We've been fighting to win these ballgames. We know how important they are."