CHICAGO — A firecracker dud produces more excitement than the Yankees did on the Fourth of July.
After grinding out a victory late Sunday afternoon against the lowly Padres, which avoided a three-game sweep, the Yankees didn’t do much of anything well Monday in an 8-2 matinee loss to the White Sox in front of 30,955 at U.S. Cellular Field.
CC Sabathia, less than three weeks ago among the AL leaders in ERA, turned in a third straight poor start, allowing five runs and eight hits, including two homers, over six innings. He’s allowed a combined 16 runs his last three starts, pushing his ERA to 3.48 from 2.20.
The Yankees’ offense, other than Starlin Castro (four hits) and Chase Headley (a two-run homer), blew a myriad of scoring chances throughout the day.
The Yankees (40-42), now 1-3 on this three-city, 10-game trip, were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against righthander James Shields and finished 0-for-13 overall. They stranded 11.
Shields, who came in 3-9 with a 5.85 ERA, was far from sharp but survived six innings, allowing two runs and five hits.
The White Sox (43-40) had 13 hits, three by Todd Frazier, who reached base in all five at-bats.
After Sabathia (5-6) stranded two in the bottom of the first, Headley gave the lefthander a lead in the second.
Castro, in a 6-for-34 slide coming in, including zero for his last 11, singled with one out. After Didi Gregorius lined to right, Headley lined a 1-and-0 cutter into the seats in right for his sixth homer of the season to make it 2-0. Sabathia provided a nine-pitch shutdown inning in the bottom half, striking out two.
The lefthander was not as fortunate in the third, though the inning could have been worse.
Jason Coats singled and leadoff man Tim Anderson, who reached on an infield single in the first, jumped on a first-pitch fastball and blasted it to center for his fourth homer of the season, tying it at 2. An error by Didi Gregorius — the first of the shortstop’s three in the game — followed by a walk and a single loaded the bases, but Sabathia struck out Brett Lawrie and got Dioner Navarro to pop to second.
The Yankees squandered a chance to retake the lead in the fourth. Brian McCann singled and went to third on Castro’s second hit of the day, a double down the leftfield line. McCann stayed at third when Gregorius grounded to first and, after Headley walked on four pitches to load the bases, Aaron Hicks flied to right.
Jacoby Ellsbury reached on a catcher’s interference — his MLB-leading eighth time this season — with one out in the fifth and went to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Shields. Consecutive groundouts by Gardner and Carlos Beltran ended the inning.
The White Sox surged ahead in the bottom half.
Frazier doubled with one out and Melky Cabrera reached on a squibber to the third-base side of the mound. Lowrie’s sacrifice fly to center made it 3-2.
Navarro, a Yankees killer from his days with the Blue Jays, came next and drove a 1-and-1 fastball out to left for his fifth homer of the season, the two-run shot making it 5-2.
The Yankees stranded two more on base in the sixth.
Rob Refsnyder doubled to lead off the seventh against Matt Albers but lefty Zach Duke came on and fanned two of the next three to end the threat.
Lawrie’s one-out single in the seventh brought in Frazier, who started the inning with a double off Luis Cessa to make it 6-2.
McCann reached on an error to start the eighth and Castro greeted Nate Jones with a single, but the righty reliever struck out Gregorius, Headley and Hicks.
..... - Newsday