Sox miss breaks in NY: 'Their team did better'

Andrew Vaughn’s second career at-bat against New York closer Aroldis Chapman, coming in the ninth inning of a 5-4 White Sox loss to the Yankees on Sunday at Yankee Stadium, produced better results than his first.

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With one out and the White Sox facing a 4-3 deficit, the rookie launched a 98.6 mph Chapman fastball into the right-center-field seats for a game-tying pinch-hit home run. Vaughn’s blast traveled 432 feet and had an exit velocity of 109.8, per Statcast, giving the White Sox new life but ultimately not enough to avoid a three-game sweep.

The clutch connection also followed Vaughn grounding into an around-the-horn triple play, ending a first-and-second, nobody-out rally in the ninth inning of Friday’s 2-1 loss.

“Something I’ve never seen, let alone been in one. So that stunk a lot,” Vaughn said of the triple play. “Today, putting a good swing on it, that’s all I wanted to do. Wasn’t really thinking about much. Just be on time for the heater.”

“He’s out there with the best closing games right now, and the swing he put on was absolutely perfect. Perfect,” said White Sox manager Tony La Russa of Vaughn’s homer. “Great at-bat in a clutch situation. Should be celebrating it but we’re not.”

There was no celebration after Liam Hendriks walked Aaron Judge with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth on five pitches well out of the strike zone, with Judge swinging at the first one. Aaron Bummer suffered the loss in his second inning of work, yielding Clint Frazier’s leadoff single in the ninth, followed by a one-out intentional walk to DJ LeMahieu and Tyler Wade’s infield single.

It was a tough setback for the White Sox (26-19), marking their first three-game losing streak of the season and their first series sweep. Entering Saturday, the White Sox had not lost back-to-back games since April 15-17, with a rainout mixed in on April 16.

But the White Sox didn’t have a completely lost weekend against the Yankees (28-19). José Abreu’s 450-foot, two-run homer in the sixth off reliever Wandy Peralta, the ninth for Abreu this season, cut the Yankees’ lead to one and ended Chicago’s 15-inning scoreless drought. The club had scored seven runs total in its past five games at that point.

An unearned run in the sixth raised New York’s advantage back to two, but Yasmani Grandal’s leadoff homer in the seventh dropped that margin back to one. His drive to right-center barely eluded the leaping effort of Frazier, who also had to navigate a fan reaching near the fence trying to make the play.

With a few breaks in the opener and finale, the White Sox could have won the series. They certainly could have left New York with at least one win. But ultimately, they did not.

“We were ourselves,” La Russa said. “Had a real chance to win two. I think we should have won one, at least, if there was justice. But their team did better than we did three times.”

“A lot of us were looking forward to this weekend, and you always want to win ballgames,” said White Sox starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel, who allowed one earned run over four-plus innings and 100 pitches Sunday. “But this was fun. We had two out of three really good ballgames, and just down to the wire, things didn't go our way. But that's what you want in the regular season; we got swept, but we were right in the thick of things there for pretty much the whole weekend.”

St. Louis (26-20) will visit Chicago on Monday for the start of a seven-game homestand for the White Sox, who hold a 1 1/2-game lead over the Indians in the American League Central. It’s a chance for the South Siders to bounce back against the National League Central leaders. But these three competitive games might sting a bit on the flight home.

“Right now, I’m hurting for our club,” said La Russa, who didn’t want to talk postgame about facing the Cardinals, with whom he won two World Series titles as a manager. “Proud and hurt.”

“Losing is never fun. Losing stinks,” Vaughn said. “Definitely not a good feeling, but we get to come at this thing tomorrow. Build upon it. It’s very unfortunate we lost, but I thought we played some really good games while we were here.”