Yankees rally to tie in ninth but lose to White Sox on walk-off

CHICAGO — It has become the one tried-and-true way to slow down the Yankees’ offense: Put Jordan Montgomery on the mound.

Plagued by a lack of run support throughout last season, he has seen that trickle into 2022.

Though Montgomery didn’t have his usual sharp stuff Saturday night, he kept the Yankees in the game. But his offense performed its usual disappearing act with him pitching, and despite rallying to tie the score with single runs in the eighth and ninth innings, the Yankees saw their five-game winning streak end in a 3-2 walk-off loss to the White Sox in front of 32,830 at Guaranteed Rate Field.

After Kyle Higashioka’s sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth brought in Joey Gallo to tie it, Luis Robert’s one-out single off an erratic Aroldis Chapman drove in Tim Anderson in the bottom of the inning to win it.

Anderson singled with one out to start the rally and went to second when Yoan Moncada walked. Robert, after getting ahead 3-and-0, lined a 3-and-1 splitter past a diving Anthony Rizzo and Anderson beat Aaron Judge’s strong throw to the plate.

“A walk in that situation, you allow the [lead] runner to move into scoring position,” Chapman said through his interpreter. “With a fast runner at second, any ball put in play or a hit like tonight is going to going to give them a chance to score the run.”

The Yankees went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, left eight on base and failed to take advantage of several good scoring opportunities.

With the White Sox leading 2-1 in the top of the ninth, Liam Hendriks walked Gallo on a 3-and-2 pitch and Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined a single down the rightfield line — Adam Engel did a good job cutting it off — to send Gallo to third.

Kiner-Falefa stole second and Higashioka lifted a fly ball to left to tie the score. AJ Pollock had no chance to throw out Gallo at the plate, but Kiner-Falefa — trying to get to third with less than two outs — misread Pollock’s slightly high throw. Third baseman Yoan Moncada jumped, cut it off and fired to Anderson covering third to nail Kiner-Falefa and short-circuit the rally. The baserunning mistake took the bat out of Aaron Judge’s hands as DJ LeMahieu struck out to end the inning.

“You can’t get thrown out in that situation,” said Kiner-Falefa, still very much steamed at himself afterward. “That was just a bonehead play and a bad read. I’ll learn from it. It won’t happen again.”

Giancarlo Stanton doubled for the first of his three hits to start the second but was left stranded, and Rizzo grounded out with the bases loaded to end the fifth.

After singles by Judge and Rizzo off Joe Kelly put runners on first and third in the eighth, Stanton’s RBI single brought the Yankees within 2-1. Rizzo stole third with one out, with pinch runner Aaron Hicks holding at first. After Hendriks struck out Josh Donaldson for the second out, Hicks stole second, but Gleyber Torres struck out to end the inning.

Montgomery, who came in 0-1 but with a 2.90 ERA in six starts — outings in which he received a total of eight runs of support — grinded through 4 1⁄3 innings in which he allowed two runs, six hits and three walks.

“I really didn’t have much to work with today,” he said. “I just felt like my timing was honestly different every inning. I never really got comfortable. The outcome was a lot of walks and deep counts.”

Montgomery entered with a streak of facing 72 straight batters without allowing a walk, which he ran to 88 before issuing back-to-back walks with one out in the fourth.

Regardless of Montgomery’s command issues, a Yankees offense that came into the night ranked first in the majors in homers (48), OPS (.755) and slugging (.430) struggled. Saturday made it 32 of his last 37 starts, dating to the beginning of 2021, in which Montgomery received three or fewer runs of support (including two or fewer runs in 24 of those starts).

White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel, one of the great Yankee-killers from the mound over the past two decades — up there with the likes of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez — has not been that kind of pitcher in at least a couple of years.

But on Saturday night Keuchel, who came in 2-3 with a 6.86 ERA, allowed four hits and three walks in five innings, allowing little in the way of hard contact, a hallmark of his peak years with the Astros.

“I thought he was sharp tonight,” Aaron Boone said. “We had a couple of chances and he was able to make some big pitches.”