Yankees shut down in loss to lowly White Sox | Rapid reaction

The Yankees managed just three hits in a 6-2 defeat to the White Sox at Yankee Stadium on Monday night. Gleyber Torres homered. Masahiro Tanaka gave up four runs in seven innings.

NEW YORK — About three hours away, in middle-of-nowhere Moosic, Pa., Gary Sanchez mashed a home run in his first at-bat against competent pitching in a month.

The Yankees need Sanchez or whatever lineup reenforcement general manager Brian Cashman can muster up before Friday’s non-waiver trade deadline. 

A prime example why: Their meek showing in a 6-2 loss to the lowly White Sox at Yankee Stadium on Monday night.

The Yankees managed just two hits against tough lefty Carlos Rodon — a Gleyber Torres two-run blast and a triple from utility man Ronald Torreyes. They had three hits total and made three errors.

They could have used Sanchez — playing his first rehab game Monday since going on the disabled list with a right groin strain. They could have used Aaron Judge (right wrist fracture) and Didi Gregorius (heel bruise), who were out, too.

But that would also be to excuse the play of the Yankees, who should have been able to beat the White Sox (52-79) — a team well under .500 — even if Masahiro Tanaka didn’t quite look his best, giving up four runs in seven innings and leaving with the team trailing by two runs.

What it means

The Yankees had their four-game winning streak snapped. They have won eight of their last 10 and 16-5 in their last 21 games.

They’re 6 1/2 games behind in the American League East. The first-place Red Sox were off Monday.

They’re four games ahead of the A’s, who were also off, in the Wild Card race.

Losing it

Tanaka escaped a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the fourth inning.

No such luck in the sixth, where Chicago took the lead for good.

The White Sox piled four runs on the right-hander, filling the bags with one out. for Yoan Moncada to double on a first-pitch sinker to right-center field.

It was a groudner that cut between Aaron Hicks and right fielder Neil Walker, who didn’t have his best night in the field, and scored two runs to tie things at 2-all.

In the next at-bat, Nicky Delmonico lifted a fly bal lto left field. Shane Robinson had no chance on the throw and Omar Narvaez scored with no problem, handing the White Sox a lead.

They got an insurance run on the seventh. Robinson, who had made a spectacular diving catch to end the sixth, let a grounder through his legs, allowing Yolmer Sanchez to reach second on the single and an error. That set up Tim Anderson’s line-drive double to the right-field corner that tailed away from Walker, who didn’t take a particularly good route to it in the first place.

In the fourth, Tanaka gave up an Anderson double and a single before hitting a batter to load the bags. He got out of it with back-to-back swinging strikeouts before Moncada’s grounder up the gut took a friendly bounce high in the air. Second baseman Torres snagged it and threw him out at first base.

Sloppiness

Miguel Andujar took too long to throw on a pair of grounders, allowing infield hits each time for Tanaka.

But Torreyes may have outdone him in the third inning. With one out and Giancarlo Stanton on deck, Torreyes, who had tripled, broke from home as soon as Aaron Hicks hit a hard grounder toward shortstop, with the infield playing in.

Anderson threw Torreyes out at home easily.

Early lead

Tanaka held the White Sox scoreless for five innings, and the two runs that came off Gleyber Torres’ fourth-inning blast to center field looked like they might be enough against the weak Chicago lineup.

Torres’ blast to center field traveled a career-long 444 feet. It gave him 20 on the season. Torres and Andujar, who scored on the play, became the first pair of Yankees rookies to hit at least 21 bombs in a season. Andujar has 21.

Next

Yankees righty Lance Lynn (8-9, 4.84 ERA) vs. White Sox righty James Shields (5-15, 4.59 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.