Yankees blow late leads in crushing 12-inning loss to White Sox
CHICAGO — The bullpen was long expected to be an area the Yankees would need to address by the trade deadline, but on the way there, their relief corps became a pleasant surprise.Five days away from the deadline, though, an overworked group had a rare bad night.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.
In a game where two of the Yankees’ best relievers were believed to be unavailable because of recent workload concerns, Paul Blackburn gave up a pair of home runs on back-to-back pitches in the eighth inning, turning a three-run lead into a tie game.The final blow came four innings later.Ryan Yarbrough, the fifth Yankees reliever of the night and seemingly last one available, gave up a walk-off single to Edgar Quero, handing them a wild and crushing 6-5 loss to the White Sox on Wednesday night at Rate Field.The Yankees loaded the bases with one out in the top of the 12th, but Ben Rice struck out and Ali Sánchez grounded out to end the threat.Then, after the White Sox sacrifice bunted the automatic runner to third, Quero lifted a single to center to end it.The Yankees (61-47), who are now 1-7 in extra-inning games this season, fell to 2 ¹/₂ games back of the Rays for first place in the AL East.They will try to still win the four-game series against the White Sox (56-51).Playing so many close games of late in large part because of their offense’s inability to blow things open, the Yankees have had to ask a lot of their bullpen.
On Wednesday, that meant not having David Bednar, Brent Headrick and Angel Chivilli available after each had thrown on back-to-back days (and Bednar four of the last five).Anthony Volpe had put the Yankees ahead 5-4 in the top of the 11th with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly.And then Camilo Doval, who has been a disappointment for most of the season, got two quick outs on a pair of ground balls aided by his defense — first a terrific pick b...