Yankees (72-51): 3
White Sox (67-55): 7

Yyyyyes! (Mike DiNovo-US PRESSWIRE)

If you look up and down the Yankee lineup, you’d be more likely to credit a pitcher that shut them down with a stellar effort over the idea of all those quality hitters taking a nap. Francisco Liriano cut down on the fastballs that got rocked in the 1st and began relying on that slider, spotting it for strikes and striking out 7 batters in 6 full innings. Not too shabby for a guy that threw over 30 pitches in the opening frame. As if to prove the point of pitching over hitting, Russell Martin, the first batter Jesse Crain (who is no slouch himself) faced upon replacing Liriano, went about 8 rows over the bullpen to put another Yankee run on the board.

The White Sox pecked away at the lead, and then, like yesterday, used the 5th inning to put a big crooked number up on the board. A 4 spot went up courtesy of a Kevin Youkilis grand slam homerun off of starter Ivan Nova. I get the feeling Youkilis isn’t fond of the Yankees. I could apologize for the title of this post, but I won’t. On a night when Youkilis hit a bust the game open grand slam my sister witnessed this man on the street. The time is right for a little Hawk/Youkilis indulgence.

Though Crain got touched for a quick run, the White Sox bullpen didn’t have much trouble finishing the job. Crain, Thornton, and Brett Myers nailed it down for the victory.

Plus: Games in which the Sox are down are not games in which the Sox earn a loss. Not automatically, anyway. Countless times this season the team has battled back, and though this deficit was overcome fairly early, it really appeared that this one had all the makings of a blowout. The offense not responding with a shutdown allowed Liriano time to create a shutdown of his own.

Minus: One of these days Liriano is going to get it together from the start. It’s no good beginning a game with a pitch count that suggests you’ve already been through three innings but that’s what Liriano did. One day, though…one day. I hope it’s in the playoffs.

Player of the Game:
Kevin Youkilis – .282 WPA

Source: FanGraphs

Francisco Liriano will be tossing for the home team. Liriano is coming off of a quality start in Toronto in which he earned his first victory as a member of the White Sox. Now that he’s got one, he is free to work towards a second. He’s faced quite a few Yankees batters numerous times before and hasn’t had a difficult time getting strikeouts against anybody except Ichiro. He’s K’d Curtis Granderson 14 times in 29 at-bats and Teixeira has gone down on strikes 10 times in 24 at-bats vs. Liriano.

1. Wise – CF
2. Youk – 2B
3. Dunn – DH
4. Paulie – 1B
5. Rios – RF
6. AJ – C
7. Dayan – LF
8. Alexei – SS
9. Gordo – 2B

If you squint very hard and also your eyesight is very bad to begin with this would appear to be the usual White Sox lineup. The difference is at the top, where Dewayne Wise once again plays in place of the recently DL’d Alejandro De Aza. Wise continued his timely hitting last night by jump-starting the Southside offense with a HR in the 5th. Will the luck continue?

Where to Watch
Game available in Chicago on WCIU, MY9 in NY and on MLB Network for out of market viewers. 7:10 start time.

White Sox (65-52): 7
Blue Jays (55-63): 2

DeWayne Wise? Yeah he hit a dinger too. (Tom Szczerbowski-US PRESSWIRE)

The long ball assault started on the wrong side for the Pale Hose as Liriano served one up to Moises Sierra with a runner on in the 2nd. Once that was out of the way, Liriano calmed down and mowed through the Toronto lineup for the rest of his time out, retiring 13 in a row at a stretch. With 6 Ks and just 3 hits allowed in his 6.1 innings pitched, Liriano continues to help Sox fans appreciate the GM.

The White Sox runs came courtesy of bombs as well. All of them. Dewayne Wise kicked it off in the 3rd with a shot that, at the time, cut the Blue Jays lead to 2-1. Wise has had a hell of an impactful series, hitting 2 HR and 6 RBI while in Toronto. Two innings later, Dayan Viciedo reached out and pulled one hard, lining a ball to left field and tying the game. Aaron Laffey then threw Tyler Flowers a pitch that was sent racing towards the top deck in left field to give the Sox lead. In the 8th, Alex Rios quieted the taunts by sending a 3-run shot out to give the Sox some breathing room and bringing the score to 6-2. But wait! There’s more! Alexei Ramirez punctuated the 8th inning crooked number by hitting his 6th HR of the year.

The bullpen had to carried its weight as well. Jesse Crain finished off the frame Liriano left, and Brett Myers nailed down the 8th. The 9th was left to Philip Humber, and he presented a perfect frame to cement the win.

Plus: A lot of folks may try and claim that all of these homeruns are bad. That a team that wins games with homeruns can’t sustain it and won’t keep winning that way. I will try no such thing. The White Sox have played their 117th game, they’ve won a good number of those. There isn’t much left to prove. We’ve seen them win with base hits, we’ve seen them win with homeruns. We’ve seen them struggle on both fronts as well. Point is, right now the homeruns are coming, and the homeruns are winning games for them. That’s a good thing. Don’t ever let anybody tell you that homeruns are bad.

Minus: An unfortunate incident occurred in the bottom half of the 7th inning, as a fan on the third base side appeared to have suffered a heart attack. The WCIU broadcast, for some reason, stuck through it, as play was halted and paramedics attempted to resuscitate the man for about 5 minutes. When he was finally loaded onto a cart and taken away, the attempts to resuscitate continued. Game play continued thereafter, though it’s tough to focus on a game having quite possibly just witnessed somebody pass away.

Player of the Game
Francisco Liriano – .160 WPA

Source: FanGraphs