García's Homer Lifts White Sox Over Yankees 5-4
CHICAGO (AP) — White Sox manager Rick Renteria thought his team had a lot of good at-bats Thursday night.
The biggest and best one belonged to Leury García.
"Huge," Renteria said. "It was a great at-bat."
García hit a tiebreaking solo homer off Adam Ottavino in the seventh inning, lifting Chicago to a 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees.
García looked at two called strikes from Ottavino before battling back and sending the 11th pitch he saw over the wall in right-center for his fourth homer .
"I just tried to swing at good pitches," García said through a translator. "I wasn't looking for a homer. I just wanted to try to get on base."
It was the first time Ottavino (2-2) allowed homers in consecutive appearances in almost two years. The right-hander, who signed a $27 million, three-year contract with New York in January, served up a solo shot to Cleveland's Jake Bauers in the seventh inning of Sunday's 7-6 victory over the Indians.
"I give a lot of credit to him for fighting me and getting into that spot," Ottavino said of García's homer. "I didn't want to walk him, so I gave him a pretty good pitch to hit and he didn't miss it there."
Tim Anderson also connected during Chicago's fourth win in five games, and four relievers combined for 3 1/3 innings of three-hit ball. Batting in the top two slots in the lineup, García and Anderson combined for four hits and five RBIs.
Evan Marshall (2-0) got three outs for the win, and Aaron Bummer worked the ninth for his first career save after regular closer Alex Colomé threw a season-high 39 pitches in Tuesday's 7-5 victory over Washington. Marshall hasn't allowed an earned run in 16 appearances this year.
"It's just like kind of your first big league win, first big league save," Bummer said. "It's awesome."
Brett Gardner homered for the Yankees, who have dropped seven of 10. Clint Frazier finished with three hits.
"We'll get it going," manager Aaron Boone said. "This is all part of it; it's not all smooth sailing all the time."
New York jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind Gardner, who drove a 3-1 pitch from Iván Nova over the wall in right for a two-run drive in the fourth. Gardner also reached on a fielder's choice in the second, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Frazier's single.
Gardner has six hits in his last four games after beginning June with a 1-for-23 slide. He also homered during the Yankees' doubleheader split against the Mets on Tuesday.
J.A. Happ appeared to be well on his way to his fourth straight win before running into trouble in the fifth. García got Chicago on the board with an RBI double, and Anderson followed with a drive to center for a tying three-run shot .
Happ retired the next three batters after Anderson's 10th homer, but the damage was done. The left-hander yielded five hits and walked four in five innings.
"I found a way to get out of the fourth and should've learned a lesson to attack and get ahead," he said. "Went out there for the fifth and didn't get it done."
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