Yankees 14
White Sox 3
The way Joe Torre sees it, his Yankees had played at a slow boil this season: hot enough to be 15 games over .500 entering yesterday, but not torrid enough to fry an egg on the dugout roof. Torre wants to see the Bombers reel off a win streak longer than the two five-gamers they produced in the first half.
“Seven, eight in a row, you see where it gets you,” he said before his club absolutely demolished the White Sox, 14-3.
The Yanks won their sixth game in seven tries yesterday, bludgeoning the AL wild-card leaders for 14 hits. The “going great guns” output (they scored in six of the innings they batted) made you wonder if this is the streak that carries the club to the peak of the American League.
In other words: look out, Boston.
“We were playing pretty good, but we’re still not where we want to be,” said Derek Jeter, who went 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
The Yanks (52-36) are 16 games over .500 for the first time this season and putting pressure not only on the Red Sox but on the Tigers and White Sox, currently the two best teams in the league. They won three of four in Detroit in late May and early June, and now have a chance to sweep reeling Chicago this afternoon.
“Our team has played two great games,” Alex Rodriguez said. “It’s important to come out and drop the hammer on them, because they’re going to come out hungry to get a win out of us.”
The Yankees scored three in the third and four in the fourth to bury Chicago lefty Mark Buehrle, and seven of the team’s starters had hits by that point. Jeter roped an RBI double to center in the first and added a two-run double to left-center in the fourth. Jason Giambi followed Jeter with the two-run single to right that iced the game.
In the third, Rodriguez produced an RBI single, and Bernie Williams looked like he was still in his prime with a two-run double deep into the right-center gap.
Mike Mussina (11-3), the beneficiary of the support, looked outstanding until the White Sox finally scored three runs in the fifth, two on an upper-deck missile by Jim Thome. Mussina notched a quality start, and Mike Myers, Scott Proctor and Ron Villone finished up.
Mussina was throwing as hard as 92 mph, and his devastating knuckle-curve was too much for the White Sox offense.
The Yankees scored four runs in the fourth before Chicago recorded an out, making use of small ball and poor defense by the White Sox. Melky Cabrera led off the inning with a single to right, and Miguel Cairo laid down a perfect drag bunt. When third baseman Alex Cintron fielded it bare-handed, he didn’t have a play.
Johnny Damon also bunted, and first baseman Paul Konerko’s throw drew Cintron off the bag. He dropped the ball, and Jeter made him pay with a two-run double to left-center. Even without Hideki Matsui, Gary Sheffield and Robinson Cano in the lineup, the Yanks have shown they can compete and beat anyone in baseball.
Right now, it looks like the question isn’t whether they can hang in until the reinforcements arrive. It’s a question of whether there’ll be an embarrassment of riches when those stars return. “Today was a good example of guys stepping up, from top to bottom,” said Andy Phillips, who ripped a two-run double in the sixth and a two-run homer in the eighth. “We certainly feel good about guys we’re running out there.”
