CHICAGO — The Yankees don’t lose to the White Sox often, but when they do, it’s in dramatic fashion.
Aroldis Chapman gave up Luis Robert’s game-winning single to right that scored Tim Anderson with one out in the bottom of the ninth and the Yankees had their five-game winning streak snapped in a 3-2 loss at Guaranteed Rate Field.
It was just the Yankees’ second loss in their last 11 games to the White Sox. The other was the Field of Dreams game in Iowa last year, which ended with an Anderson homer.
This time, Anderson singled off Chapman with one out and Yoan Moncada walked before Robert ended it.
“Things got a little complicated,” Chapman said through an interpreter of the ninth. “You’ve got to give them credit. They got the job done.”
Chapman has walked nine batters in his last 8 ²/₃ innings, none more costly than the one to Moncada on Saturday.
The Yankees, though, went just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and had their best chances late in the game and suffered a self-inflicted wound to help cut short a rally.
With the White Sox up 2-1 in the top of the ninth, Joey Gallo led off with a walk against Liam Hendriks, who had entered the eighth to bail out Joe Kelly.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a single to right, sending Gallo to third.
With Kyle Higashioka at the plate, Kiner-Falefa stole second. Higashioka hit a sacrifice fly to left, which scored Gallo to tie the game. Kiner-Falefa, however, was thrown out trying to advance to a third for the second out when Moncada cut off AJ Pollock’s throw and threw to Anderson covering the bag.
Kiner-Falefa called it a “bonehead play,” and made it clear he wasn’t trying to draw the throw to make sure Gallo scored.
“It was a bad read,” said Kiner-Falefa, adding he thought the throw would go over Moncada and to the plate. “I’m already in scoring position. … It can’t happen. Anytime you’ve got the big guys coming up, you can’t get thrown out at third.”
DJ LeMahieu followed by striking out with Aaron Judge on deck, leaving the score tied headed to the bottom of the ninth.
The Yankees scored a run in the eighth, but had a chance for more. Giancarlo Stanton singled in Judge, but with runners on second and third and one out, Hendriks struck out Josh Donaldson and Gleyber Torres with 98 mph four-seamers.
The Yankees waited until after starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery left the game to start scoring runs.
Through seven starts, Montgomery has received just 2.29 runs per game of support, which is a full run less than anyone else in the Yankees rotation. The closest is Nestor Cortes, at 3.83.
The Yankees have scored more than three runs for Montgomery just eleven this season. It was more of the same on Saturday against Dallas Keuchel, the lefty who has tormented the Yankees throughout his career.
Keuchel entered the game with a 2.23 ERA in nine career starts against the Yankees and an overall 6.86 ERA this year. That was skewed somewhat by a one-inning disaster against the Guardians on April 20, when Keuchel allowed seven earned runs.
Keuchel threw five scoreless innings on Saturday.
Montgomery was shaky from the start. Anderson led off the bottom of the first with a single and moved to second on a grounder by Moncada. Robert ripped a shot just foul before his single to center scored Anderson to give Chicago a 1-0 lead in a 26-pitch inning.
Montgomery and the Yankees fell further behind when Moncada hit a leadoff homer to center in the bottom of the third.
Montgomery’s struggles continued at the bottom of the fourth. The lefty hadn’t walked a batter in his previous three starts or the first three innings Saturday, but he gave up back-to-back walks to Adam Engel and Josh Harrison with one out in the fourth. He got Anderson to hit into an inning-ending double play, however, to keep it a two-run game.
Kiner-Falefa singled with one out in the fifth and LeMahieu and Judge drew two-out walks, setting up Rizzo with the bases loaded.
But Rizzo, with just five hits and a pair of RBIs in his previous 40 plate appearances, grounded out to second to end the threat.
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