NEW YORK — Chicago walked into the Bronx sitting on top of the American League Central and carrying the look of a club that had finally turned a corner. One night against the Yankees erased that illusion in a hurry.
New York unloaded for 16 hits and four home runs Tuesday, burying the White Sox in a 12-2 blowout. The absence of Aaron Judge did nothing to slow an offense that pounced the moment the game opened up.
Beatdowns like this one have become routine for the Yankees of late, and the AL Central has borne the brunt of it.
Cole shrugs off one mistake
New York leaned on Gerrit Cole for length and got plenty of it. The veteran kept Chicago off the bases with ease, surrendering only one runner past first until the sixth.
The single dent came in the opening frame. With two down, ex-Yankee Andrew Benintendi turned on a Cole offering and lifted it out for a solo shot that nudged Chicago in front 1-0.
Cole barely blinked. He set down 13 hitters in succession after that swing and wrapped up six innings of two-run ball to bank his second victory of the year, a welcome bounce-back after two shaky starts following his return from Tommy John surgery.
His only other blemish arrived in the sixth, when Tristan Peters slapped a leadoff single that skipped past Ben Rice at first. By that point the cushion was so large that Cole could pour strikes in without a second thought.
Jones knots it, then the dam breaks
The deficit did not last. Spencer Jones squared the game with a solo blast, his second since being summoned to the majors and his first launched at Yankee Stadium.
New York seized control in the third. The Yankees stuffed the bases with nobody retired, and Cody Bellinger ripped a two-run single through the infield to nudge them ahead 3-1.
The at-bats kept coming. Jazz Chisholm Jr. earned a one-out walk to repack the bases, Jones coaxed a bases-loaded walk to plate another, and Jose Caballero tacked on a run with a sacrifice fly to stretch it to 5-1 across a draining 40-pitch inning for Chicago.
That frame captured the grinding, patient style that has kept the Yankees humming through their injuries. They wore down counts, forced free passes, and refused to give the White Sox staff a breather, flipping a one-run edge into a runaway.
Twin blasts knock out Martin
The fourth turned a lead into a laugher for the Yankees. A pair of swings spelled the end for White Sox starter Davis Martin.
Rice crushed a two-run homer, and Goldschmidt promptly matched him with a two-run drive of his own, his 10th long ball of the season. The back-to-back shots drove Martin from the game after he had walked in with the sixth-best ERA in the majors.
New York piled on from there. Ryan McMahon dropped in an RBI single, and a wild throw from reliever Chris Murphy allowed yet another run to cross, blowing the margin wide open.
Martin’s home run nightmare
The night unraveled badly for a pitcher who had been stingy all season against the rest of the league. Martin had practically refused to give up the long ball before facing the Yankees.
He had yielded only three homers through his first 13 starts. New York equaled that figure in a mere 3 1/3 innings, clearing the fence three times before he could finish the fourth.
When the dust settled, the Yankees had stacked up 16 hits, their second-best output of the season, alongside the four homers. They managed all of it while missing both Judge and Giancarlo Stanton to injury.
Goldschmidt keeps the focus forward
In the clubhouse afterward, the Yankees refused to let one rout inflate their expectations. Paul Goldschmidt, the steadying force in Judge’s absence, pointed to the roster’s depth and the standard set inside it.
He stressed that the group cannot coast, with two centerpiece bats still working their way back.
“It’s not like Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are coming back tomorrow, so we have to do this for a while,” Goldschmidt said. “This is a good start, but we’ve got to keep it going. I think the way we’re playing speaks to our depth and the culture I stepped into here last year. It’s about winning, no matter who’s out there.”
Goldschmidt expects the road to stiffen, even as the Yankees keep piling up wins.
“We know how long the season is, especially with two of our best hitters out,” Goldschmidt said. “But this is what we’re built for.”
Punishing the AL Central
The win deepened a lopsided trend for the Yankees against one division. New York has treated the AL Central like a personal punching bag.
The Yankees have now claimed 11 of 13 meetings with AL Central clubs this season. That run features a sweep of the Guardians in Cleveland just over a week ago and a spotless 6-0 record against the Kansas City Royals.
Tuesday marked the Yankees’ seventh win in their last eight games, hoisting them to an AL-best 44-27. Chicago, knotted with Cleveland atop the Central entering the night, looked nothing like a division leader inside Yankee Stadium.
A deep team built to weather the storm
“I want to get those guys back, but the one thing I’ve maintained with you guys all year is I feel like we’re a deeper team than we’ve been in a lot of years and capable of withstanding some significant people being out of the lineup or out of the rotation,” Boone said.
The underlying numbers back up the claim. The Yankees own a plus-107 run differential, fourth-best in all of baseball and the top mark in the American League, where only five clubs sit in positive territory. Seattle is a distant second in the league at plus-20, followed by the White Sox at plus-12, the Rays at plus-7, and the Rangers at plus-4.
New York returns to action Wednesday as the White Sox series continues in the Bronx, with Carlos Rodon on the mound.
The Yankees lead the majors with 21 games decided by at least four runs, 18 games won by five or more, and 11 by six or more. Since May 1, they remain near the front of the pack in each of those margins, a sign of steady, decisive winning rather than a couple of skewed scores.
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