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The Yankees beat the White Sox, 4-0, on Saturday afternoon in the Bronx >> Box score
Six takeaways from Saturday's game…
1) CC Sabathia, coming off the injured list to make his first start of the season, was spectacular. In five innings, Sabathia allowed just one base runner (on a single) and struck out three. Sabathia, who will be retiring at season's end, is now 11 strikeouts away from 3,000 for his career, which should aid his bid to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Before we concern ourselves with Sabathia's career worth, right now the Yanks can use some of the stopper stuff he's possessed the last couple of seasons. He provided it Saturday.
2) Shifting from Sabathia to Domingo German could not have been easy for the White Sox -- soft tossing lefty to a hard throwing righty. German was excellent, tossing two scoreless innings with four strikeouts. The role is something for the Yankees to place in the memory bank for when (if) he is no longer needed in the rotation later in the season.
3) In a big seventh inning, the Yankees played some small ball. They put three runs on the board without anything bigger than a single. Runs were driven in by a broken bat single, a sacrifice fly and a safety squeeze. Home runs are great, but every so often, manufacturing runs helps win ball games.
4) After receiving a cortisone shot in his ailing right shoulder, Dellin Betances is not going to be back until sometime in June at the earliest. Someone is going to have to step up in the late innings and Zack Britton has to help the cause. Britton has not been as sharp, but he induced three ground balls in the top of the eighth inning. That's the type of performance the Yankees imagined when they signed him to a three-year deal in the offseason and the club needs him to carry out the vision.
5) Aaron Judge hit his fourth home run of the season to remind us that this club was built on the long ball. This one was hit hard (101.6 mph), but was more of a Yankee Stadium special than a patented Judge bomb. Judge's approach was built for Yankee Stadium, where he can muscle run of the mill fly balls into home runs and just as easily hit them into Monument Park in center field. Judge has yet to get into a consistent power grove, but once he does, expect some big numbers.
6) It was not a save opportunity, but Aroldis Chapman looked excellent in the ninth inning. He reached 100 mph with several pitches and showed his nasty slider to register a strikeout. After six days off, Chapman didn't look the least bit rusty and any concerns about his velocity should be quelled.
Highlights
Porch'd. #AllRise pic.twitter.com/JgcTcqrIIN
- MLB (@MLB) April 13, 2019
What's next
The Yankees wrap up their series with the White Sox on Sunday at 1:05 p.m.