And so back in NYC, the Yankees faced quite a comfortable run in. They would first face the Chicago White Sox – the worst team in the American League, second worst in all of major league baseball. After that they would face the Baltimore Orioles who have the poorest record in the Yankees’ own division – the American League East.

The difficulty is that, through these six games they will not only need to keep pace with the Toronto Blue Jays but surpass the Blue Jays record over the same period. They went into the first Chicago game two games behind Toronto and (because of Toronto having the advantage in the tie-breaker rules), they would need to finish one game ahead of the Blue Jays.

The tie-breaker stipulates that the team with most wins in the games between the two teams would finish top in event of a dead heat. And in this, Toronto have the clear edge – and the two teams will not play each other again in the regular season.

The game started at 7:10 on a crystal clear late summer night. On the mound for the Yankees was Luis Gil who has had an uneven season, punctured by injuries and a fall-off in his strikeout rate from his award-winning rookie season.

He started off by getting Chase Meidroth to hit a ground ball over to third base, where Ryan McMahon fielded cleanly and a throw over to first baseman Ben Rice completed the out. However, he did give up a walk to Kyle Teel but this was a minor blip before Colson Montgomery was called out on strikes, and Miguel Vargas struck out swinging. Strikeout rate down? Huh!

The bottom of the first didn’t suggest that the Yankees were going to have much of an edge. They did get a hit (single from Rice), and Aaron Judge was walked to parallel the one that the Yankees had given to Teel, but all of this was surrounded by three strikeouts (Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton). White Sox pitcher, Shane Smith was going to be no walkover.

The top of the second didn’t see much change in the status quo. Edgar Quero hit a flyout to Bellinger. Brooks Baldwin did similarly, but this time it fell into the glove of Grisham. A grounder from Lenyn Sosa produced a single but a further flyball from Will Robertson was again cleanly taken by centerfielder Grisham.

The Yankees were to be the first team to put a run on the board and it came in the bottom of the second. The White Sox landed themselves in the trouble by giving up a walk to the speedy Jazz Chisholm Jr, who then moved on to second with a successful steal. There was a setback with McMahon striking out swinging, but a single from Anthony Volpe moved Chisholm to 3rd. It was that vital clutch hitter Austin Wells who broke the short-lived deadlock. His double to rightfield scored Chisholm and moved Volpe to third. 1-0.

Smith settled enough to get Grisham to strikeout swinging, but the fact that confidence was low on the White Sox bench showed as they intentionally walked Judge, preferring to concentrate their efforts on Bellinger, who hit a flyout to centerfield.

Gil was able to retain the zero in Chicago’s run column, but he didn’t make it easy for himself. He started by getting Fletcher to hit a flyball, which the accomplished Grisham turned into another out and as the Sox returned to the top of the order, once again there was another 5-3 groundout for Meidroth. And then the problems began. First, Gil walked Teel and then he committed a throwing error when trying to pick off the runner. Then his effort to give Keel a mountain of confidence grew as he moved him up to third on a wild pitch. He recovered enough to get Montgomery to flyout to Bellinger, but it had looked dangerous for a while and Gil needs to improve if he is to find a spot on the post-season roster.

In the bottom of the third, the Yankees could not advance their cause despite a single that came on a grounder from Chisholm. Before that hit, they already had two outs. Firstly, Rice hit a ground out which Sosa moved across to field with the pitcher, Smith running over to cover the base to complete the out. The second came when Stanton struck out swinging. Chisholm being on first came to nothing when the third baseman hit a flyout to Robertson in left.

There were to be no runs in the 4th or the 5th. In Chicago’s half of the 4th, the batters went down in order (Vargas flyout, Quero ground out 4-3, Baldwin flyout to Grisham). The Yankees made little impact – Volpe flied out as did Judge, Wells was out on a liner. The only glimmer was Grisham being walked when there were two outs. Again, Chicago couldn’t muster a hit in the 5th (Sosa hit a flyout to the ubiquitous Grisham, who also dealt with Robertson’s line out). Fletcher hit a pop up directly to Volpe. It did seems if anyone was to score, it would be the Yankees increasing the margin of lead – but they were careless and threw away their meagre opportunities. With one out (Bellinger striking out), Rice attempted to turn his single into somehing by rounding toward second, only to find that challenging Fletcher’s arm was not a good idea as Rice was not able to make second. The inning ended when Stanton struck out swinging (again!).

And sometimes if you don’t take your chances…With one out (Meidroth giving a grounder to Rice who put him out unassisted), Teel was able to put a single into centerfield which for once Grisham couldn’t do anything about and this was followed by a homer from Colson Montgomery who hit it over the right centerfield wall. 2-1.

After a foul ball popout from Vargas which Rice took cleanly, it looked like Chicago might advance further with Quero hitting a single but it was all for nought as Baldwin struck out swinging.

The first change of pitching came in the bottom of the 6th with Chicago lifting Smith (who was now the pitcher of record) and replacing him with Tyler Gilbert. Once agin, it was an inning which highlighted the Yankees careless, slapdash attitude. They started well with Chisholm hitting a single to righfield. This gave them the incentive to replace McMahon for pinch-hitter Amed Rosario, who has been the more consistent hitter. It wasn’t a change that worked well with Rosario striking out swinging. Then with Volpe at the bat, Chishom took off for second where he was picked off by Montgomery. Volpe added his name to the list of Yankees who had struck out swinging to end the inning.

With the White Sox still having that crucial one run lead, the Yankees considered their options. This resulted with Rosario staying in the game at third, and Fernando Cruz replacing Gil on the mound.

Cruz settled in quickly, getting both Sosa and Robertson to hit into 6-3 ground outs. But then Fletcher singled into left before a flyout from Meidroth (also to leftfield) ended the inning.

The team from the Windy City made another call to the bullpen with Jordan Leasure replacing Gilbert. Leasure got Wells to strike out swinging but then gave up a walk to Grisham (Grisham’s second of the game) before Judge hit into a doubleplay to bring the 7th to a close.

8th? More bullpen calls and no real chances for Chicago. First, it was Tim Hill coming into pitch who got Teel to strike out swinging and then Montgomery to hit a grounder towards Roasrio who threw to Rice to make the out. However, when Vargas hit a single, it was time for the Yankees to make another change with Luke Weaver taking over from Hill. Weaver enticed Quero to hit a flyout towards Judge and once more the teams were ready to trade their positions.

The quick succession of pitchers continued with Grant Taylor taking over from Leasure as the White Sox sought to maintain that narrow gap. Bellinger grounded out 4-3, but then Rice hit a single. With Aaron Boone looking to find that extra spark, he brought in crafty pinch runner, Jose Caballero for Rice. Stanton found a new way to get out, hitting a flyball to leftfield, where it was dealt with by Robertson. Chisholm made his day 3-for-3 with a walk when he hit another single to rightfield. This enabled the speedy Caballero to advance to third. A wild pitch from Taylor moved the man on first up a base. And with two runners in scoring position, things seemed ideally set for Rosario (who after all had been brought on for his superior batting skills) to be set to change the whole balance of the game. Amed couldn’t make the best of the opportunity being called out on strikes in six pitches.

Again, the Yankees tinkered with their defensive allignment – they put Caballero at third and brought in Paul Goldschmidt at first, resulting in the disapponting Rosario leaving the game. Weaver then gave up a double to Baldwin. Baldwin now looked if he might be the best opportunity that Chicago would have to score again. However, once more it was not to be as Weaver was able to turn things around. Sosa struck out, then Robertson popped out to Volpe before Fletcher hit one between first and second which Goldschmidt was able to field in the gap and then throw to Weaver who was dashing over to step on the base before Fletcher.

And so we came to the bottom of the 9th, with the Yankees in the last chance saloon. The White Sox sought to improve matters for themselves by bringing in Michael A. Taylor for Baldwin. Taylor is conventionally a stronger defensive outfielder – his batting average is not something you want to spend too much time dwelling on.

They also brought in Brandon Eisert to pitch – and let’s say he didn’t settle well. Firstly, he gave up a single to Volpe and then similar to Wells. Grisham who had otherwise had a great day brought everything crashing down then, as he hit into a doubleplay. The Yankees now had two outs, with Volpe on 3rd and were still losing.

But then, the Chicago bench started to overthink things. They intentionally walked Judge to put runners at the corners and then Eisert walked Bellinger on seven pitches to load them up. But just to add to the misery the seventh pitch was also a wild pitch – meaning that Volpe scored to tie the game. Having perhaps created their own problem, the bench then decided to yank Eisert and replace him with Steven Wilson. 2-2

Wilson then gave up a single to Caballero which scored Judge, who the White Sox chose to intentionally walk for fear that he might hurt them This will give someone sleepless nights.

3-2.

The Yankees narrowed the Blue Jays lead to one game and Weaver who has been inconsistent recently took the win. What will happen next?