So, the Yankees closed the gap on Toronto yesterday. Now they come to the second game of their three games series with the Chicago White Sox, hoping that it will not be as close as the first game, and also knowing that they could not afford to lose unless they should ruin their chances of taking of taking over at the head of the American League East.

Max Fried was to be the Yankees starter and Fraser Ellard would start on the mound for the Chicago team, in a game that would prove to be a bullpen game for them – intentionally or otherwise.

The game started at 7:10 with Fried managing to get Chase Meidroth to chase the ball and strike out swinging. Curtis Mead was the second out as he hit a ground ball back to Fried who threw over to Paul Goldschmidt to complete the out. Fried got his second strikeout with Edgar Quero swinging wildly.

The Yankees didn’t have to maximise their efforts in order to create their first chance. Ellard walked Trent Grisham and then a wild pitch moved him up to second. Ellard was working too hard to create a dominance and this led only to walking Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger in that order to load the bases. The Yankees began in turn to create their own problems. First, Giancarlo Stanton hit a fly out to Brooks Baldwin in rightfield and then catcher Ben Rice became the third strike out of the evening as Ellard got him to strike out swinging.

Then Jonathan Cannon was brought on to replace Ellard. This seemed to be an odd decision with the starter who had begun with a huge struggle now having settled into a seemingly even pace – perhaps this was the plan from the beginning. Either way Ellard’s time on the mound came to a close. Cannon closed out the inning by getting Goldschmidt to strikeout. The Yankees failed to score despite havng the bases loaded.

The opening run went to Chicage in the top of the second. Miguel Vargas hit a single into leftfield. A further one-bagger came from Colson Montgomery whose hit to rightfield moved Vargas to third. Lenyn Sosa’s sacrifice fly was taken cleanly by Bellinger in left, but not quickly enough to stop Vargas reaching home. 1-0.

The Yankees’ problems heightened when they blew a fielder’s choice next. The fielded play by Ryan McMahon should have resulted in the second out, but for a blunder by Jazz Chisholm Jr. He fluffed a catch which allowed Montgomery to be safe at second and Corey Julks to reach first.

But the White Sox failed to add to their score as Baldwin flied out to Grisham in centerfield and yet another strikeout saw Michael A. Taylor ended the inning.

The Yankees, only 1-0 down, were not long in arrears. Chisholm who was not having a great day in the field, now struck out swinging to not get his batting off to a great start either. However, The Yankees began to turn things around when Anthony Volpe hit a double in leftfield. But things were still in the balance when the second out came with McMahon becoming a number on the long list of strikeouts.

With two outs. Cannon walked Grisham to give the Yankees two on base. And then Aaron Judge hit a 3 run homer to give the New York team the lead. It was his fiftieth homer of the season. The hit to centerfield scored both Volpe and Grisham and opened a lead that Chicago would struggle to close.

The third out followed shortly after with Bellinger popping out to Montgomery at shortstop.

So,as we moved into the top of the third, Chicago were back at the top of the line-up but made no impact. Meidroth grounded out 6-3, Mead hit a flyout to Grisham and a further groundout followed with Quero returning a hit to Fried.

But if Chicago couldn’t add to the score, the Yankees didn’t share the same problem. After Stanton grounded out, it was Rice who started the Yankees move to more runs. When Taylor deflected his hit, it slowed the ball and when Baldwin scooped it, Rice was already on his way to third. A single from Goldschmidt brought Rice home. 4-1.

It was finally time for Chisholm to contribute something positive to the game after fumbled catches and strikeouts. His double to centerfield brought Goldschmidt home and extended the Yankees lead. 5-2.

There were then two quick outs to bring the inning to closure. Volpe hit a flyout to Taylor in centerfield and McMahon struck out swinging.

5-1 down as they entered the fourth, there was little in Chicago’s performance this season to suggest that they could get back into this game. And indeed, Fried dominated them despite giving up a ground-rule double to Montgomery when there was one out. That first out was Vargas called out on strikes. Montgomery’s hit was followed by Sosa out on a foul tip strike out, and then a flyout from Julks to Grisham.

The Yankees had Grisham up first. He grounded out to Vargas and then Judge hit a flyout to centerfield. Bellinger managed to add a single but Stanton was having a consistently weak performance and he once more struck out swinging.

As the game entered the 5th, the Yankees needed to do little to maintain the status quo. The White Sox looked bedraggled and subdued – hardly a team at all. I guess this has been the story of their season. Even when Baldwin opened the inning with a single there was no visible life in the team’s outlook and surely enough the remainder of the inning saw the team go down in order. Taylor, who was having a woeful game, struck out swinging. Meidroth hit a grounder which enabled Baldwin to move up to second, but this was followed by a lineout for Mead.

The Yankees had no appetite to increase their lead and truly the only thing separating these two things was that three run homer for Judge. In this inning, Rice hit a flyout to Julks in left, Goldschmidt was called out on strikes and Chisholm popped out to Montgomery at shortstop.

6th inning? More of the same. Quero hit into a 5-3 groundout. However, Vargas then was gifted a walk only for Montgomery to hit into an unassisted double pay with Goldschmidt taking the line out cleanly and then trapping Vargas off base.

Cannon, who it seemed was destined to take the loss unless there was some dramatic turnaround but who had pitched well for his 4 1/3 innings was now replaced by Tyler Alexander. Alexander made light work of the three Yankees hitters he faced this inning. He got Volpe to flyout to leftfield and McMahon gave another flyout to Taylor in centerfield before Grisham struck out swinging.

Nothing was to change in the seventh either. The dominant Fried did give up a walk to Baldwin but this came with two outs with Sosa having already grounded out and Julks chasing the pitchers for a strikeout swinging. The inning closed with Taylor hitting a flyout to Judge in rightfield.

The Yankees did produce two hits in their half of the 7th, but it brought them no more runs. This was a game where the highlights were provided by the tandem of Fried and Judge, and it was Judge who opened the inning with a single. Bellinger skied one towards Baldwin in right, but it dropped into rightfielder’s glove cleanly. The Designated Hitter, Stanton finally produced something of note in what was proving to be a difficult week for him. He hit a single into centerfield which was sufficient to move Judge upto second. Stanton’s afternoon then came to an end with pinchrunner Jasson Dominguez replacing him on first. Dominguez has been relegated to a bench role in most games recently.

But once more, the Yankees could not build on this opportunity. Rice lined out and Goldschmidt was called out on strikes.

With Dominguez now the DH and with Austin Wells entering the line-up batting 5th in place of Rice, the Yankees faced no challenge from Chicago in the 8th. Fried’s time on the mound had come to an end and the call to the bullpen produced Devin Williams, which frankly still makes my heart skip a beat. I’m never sure which way his performance is going to go.

This time, it went to the good. He got Meidroth to flyout to right, Mead to line out to centerfield. and Quero could only produce a soft grounder which went in the direction of Goldschmidt at first.

Alexander had looked strong for Chicago, but his outing was only to last one inning. He was replaced by Cam Booser and things almost immediately started to go wrong. He did manage to achieve two outs with both Chisholm and Volpe grounding out, but he couldn’t complete the three outs at the very weak part of the Yankees’ lineup. He gave up a walk to McMahon despite having him at 0-2 in the count at one point. the next four pitches were all called “ball” and McMahon took his base. This meant that the Yankees were back at the top of their lineup and this brought about an immediate change in the way that the game was flowing. Grisham hit a home run over the centerfield wall and the game moved to 7-1.

Next up was Aaron Judge and there was a similar outcome – only this time to right of center. 51 home runs on the season, two tonight, and the game was now 8-1.

The third out came quickly with Bellinger lining out to Taylor in centerfield.

This left Chicago with just three outs and no real chance of getting back into the game. Paul Blackburn took over on the mound and faced little oppostion fron the White Sox. Vargas hit a flyout, which was cleanly taken by Grisham. Montgomery was called out on strikes. There was a momentary hope when Sosa took a single. The Chicago team then did a slight reshuffle of their pack with Will Robertson coming on to pinch hit for Julks. However, a lightweight pop from Robertson went straight to McMahon and it was all over.

When the results came in from around the leagues, this 8-1 win was enough to tie the Yankees with the Toronto Blue Jays for lead of the American League East. As previously mentioned the Blue Jays will take the tiebreak if things stay like this over the next four games. Both teams are now 90-68.

What will happen in the last game of this series tomorrow?