Yankees beat the White Sox in extra innings with Gray, Stanton and Andujar the stars of the game

On Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, the Yankees beat the White Sox 4–3 in 13 innings after Miguel Andujar hit a single in the top of the 13th to score Didi Gregorius to give the Yankees their fourth run.

The Yankees would not have advanced to extra innings without Andujar, who is a rookie, since his homer to left to lead off the 7th tied the game at one. Andujar was 3–5 with two RBI and a run scored overall.

According to Bryan Hoch, he is batting .359 (23–64) since the All-Star Game, which is the 4th best average in the American League (minimum 50 plate appearances) in that span. Helping him reach that very high batting average since the All-Star Game is that he has at least one hit in 26 of his last 31 games.

The Rookie of the Year candidate now has an impressive .292 average with 15 homers, 30 doubles, 50 RBI and a .499 slugging percentage in 101 games so far. Last season in 125 games combined with Double-A and Triple-A, Andujar only had 16 homers and 36 doubles and 125 games, which proves he is improving his power.

Andujar has the 3rd best batting average among AL third baseman, is tied for the 3rd most hits with 112, has the 3rd most doubles and is in a 5-way tie for the sixth most homers. He has some defensive lapses and doesn’t have the greatest range, but he makes almost all of the routine plays and seems like he will be a top offensive third baseman for many years to come.

CC Sabathia pitched 5.2 innings and the only run that he allowed was a sac fly by Jose Abreu that scored White Sox catcher Omar Narvaez. Sabathia, who has allowed two runs or less in all of his last three starts, allowed four hits and struck out a season-high 12 batters. The last time he had 12 strikeouts in a game was back on August 17, 2016.

Chad Green, David Robertson, Dellin Betances and Jonathan Holder all held the White Sox hitless while getting the Yankees to the 10th inning.

The only run the Yankees scored before extra innings was Andujar’s homer. They should have scored more than one run since White Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez, who only allowed one run in 7.0 innings, had a 4.47 ERA coming into the game and had a given up five runs or more in three of his previous four starts.

The Yankees were 2–11 in the game with runners in scoring position, but were able to come through in the clutch in extra innings with one hit with RISP in extra innings and three runs that were pivotal in the Yankees winning the game.

With Brett Gardner on first base after walking earlier in the inning, Giancarlo Stanton hit a 403 foot homer to give the Yankees a 3–1 lead. However, star relief pitcher Zach Britton, who was acquired before the trade deadline, gave up a two-out homer to Abreu that scored Narvaez. Abrue drove in all three of the runs that the White Sox scored and is the primary run producer for the White Sox.

Britton has now allowed at least one run in two of the five games he has appeared in with the Yankees.

In addition to Andujar and Stanton on offense, Sonny Gray was a huge reason the Yankees won the game. Gray was demoted from the rotation and replaced by Lance Lynn after Gray’s last start when he allowed seven earned runs and eight hits in only 2.2 innings.

Gray pitched the 11th, 12th and 13th innings while striking out four and only allowing one hit and one walk. He won his 9th game of the season and looked comfortable out there since so much pressure was on him to not allow a run.

“It’s been a tough couple of days for me, but everyone in this clubhouse has had my back,” Gray said. “It was nice to come in in a situation and pitch well enough to get a win there.”

The Yankees will look to win the series against the lowly White Sox (41–72) when they play the 3rd game of the series Wednesday night at 8:10 EST.