Yankees waste great outings by Jameson Taillon and Luis Severino, drop doubleheader to White Sox
Yankees relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman walks back to the dugout after being relieved in the ninth inning of a game against the White Sox on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. Credit: AP/John Minchillo
What a waste.
After Jameson Taillon allowed one run in seven innings in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader against the White Sox at the Stadium, Luis Severino tossed seven scoreless innings in the second game — and the Yankees flushed both efforts.
They dropped the first game, 3-1, after Aroldis Chapman allowed a leadoff homer by AJ Pollock in the ninth to snap a 1-1 tie. Aaron Judge had tied it a half-inning earlier with his MLB-leading 15th homer.
The Yankees (29-12) were outhit 13-3 in a 5-0 loss in the second game as Jonathan Loaisiga and Miguel Castro combined to allow five runs in the eighth inning, a frame that included a three-run homer by Tim Anderson that made it 5-0.
Anderson, who took issue with Josh Donaldson calling him “Jackie” a day earlier — which contributed to two benches-clearing incidents Saturday — was booed throughout Game 2 and put a finger to his lips to “ssshhh” the crowd after the homer.
“J-Mo and Sevy to go out and pitch the way they did, you’d like to certainly pull down one,’’ Aaron Boone said. “But they outpitched us today. They were able to hold us down today. It’s tough when you get those outings from J-Mo and Sevy, but that’s part of it. It’s not always going to be easy and the other side had something to do with that with their execution from their starters.”
White Sox righty Michael Kopech retired the first 17 batters he faced in Game 2 before Rob Brantly, brought up earlier in the day, doubled with two outs in the sixth to break up the perfect game. Kopech allowed one hit and two walks in seven innings, striking out six.
Said Severino, “That’s going to happen. Throughout the year, I’m going to face good starting pitching. He’s [Kopech] been outstanding this year, and it’s my job to do the same thing. I need to give my team a chance to win, and every time they give me the ball, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Severino, 3-0 with a 3.63 ERA coming in, allowed eight hits but kept finding his way out of trouble. The White Sox (21-20) were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine against Severino before breaking through against Loiasiga in the eighth, getting two-out RBI singles from Andrew Vaughn and Reese McGuire to make it 2-0.
The first real trouble Severino faced was in the third, when he allowed back-to-back one-out singles. Anderson was credited with an infield single when plate umpire Greg Gibson did not notice that the ball first connected with his foot. That led to pitching coach Matt Blake’s second career ejection.
“It’s such an overreaction,’’ Boone said of Gibson’s decision to eject Blake. “[Blake] said, ‘You missed it.’ Which he did.”
Severino got out of it, striking out Luis Robert looking at a 98-mph fastball. His most impressive escape came in the fifth, when he got out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam by inducing two forceouts at the plate and striking out Robert.
In the first game, the Yankees again were victimized by Chapman, who has allowed a run in each of his last five outings.
Boone said Chapman has been getting treatment for a sore Achilles. “He wasn’t moving around great out there, but he wanted the ball,” Boone said.
That came on the heels of the pregame news that Chad Green, a bullpen standout since 2017, will be lost for the season with a right elbow strain that will require season-ending Tommy John surgery. Joey Gallo and Kyle Higashioka were placed on the COVID-19 injured list before Game 1 — both were in the clubhouse late Sunday morning — with significant symptoms. “They’re both pretty under the weather,” Boone said.
Judge went 3-for-4 in Game 1, including his big homer. He drove an 0-and-2 pitch from Kendall Graveman 431 feet into the second deck in leftfield, tying the score at 1-1.
At that point, he had five homers in his last nine games, 11 in his last 20 and 14 in his last 25.
But the good feeling in the buzzing crowd didn’t last long. On his second pitch in the top of the ninth, Chapman left a 1-and-0 fastball over the plate and Pollock slammed it to left for his second homer of the season. Adam Engel’s RBI double made it 3-1 and Chapman was booed off the mound as righty Ron Marinaccio took over.
“I think today, to me, he didn’t look great on his legs with that,” Boone said of Chapman’s Achilles. “I think that was probably an issue today.”
Chapman said he’s been dealing with discomfort in his left Achilles for “a couple of weeks” but wouldn’t use that as a reason for his poor results of late.
“When you’re dealing with things, sometimes it can affect you,’’ he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s not the reason for the results. You’re dealing with it and you do the best you can, but it’s an easy way out to say that’s the reason.”
The Yankees, who saw Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Aaron Hicks get picked off, were held scoreless by Johnny Cueto and Joe Kelly through the first seven innings.
Taillon allowed one run and five hits in seven innings, striking out seven, walking none and lowering his ERA to 2.95. He said it was “probably the first day of the season I felt like I was executing everything in my arsenal.”
The righthander’s lone hiccup inning was a 29-pitch fourth in which he allowed three straight one-out singles by Jose Abreu, Pollock and Yasmani Grandal. After Grandal’s hit gave the White Sox a 1-0 lead, Taillon retired 10 straight.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
