Juan Soto Beats The White Sox With First Career Three-Homer Game

There was actually something Juan Soto had never done in his career, which is saying something, but he took care of that Tuesday, while Nestor Cortes pitched great and the Yankees were barely able to hold off the mighty White Sox, so a proud night for them. However, of course there was bad news, and it looks like Jazz Chisholm could very possibly be out for the season. And down in Box Score Briefs, plenty of news around MLB. Let’s get to it.

Aug. 13: Yankees 4, White Sox 1

Well, I guess we can now say that Jazz Chisholm is officially a Yankee because, as we know, you aren’t a true Yankee until you’ve gotten hurt and landed on the injured list.

Two weeks into his Yankee career, that’s where Chisholm is apparently headed after he suffered an injury to his left (non-throwing) elbow while sliding head first into home during the Monday night debacle in Chicago.

Juan Soto was the headliner Tuesday as he single-handedly carried the offense with his first three-homer game, driving in all four runs, and his wing man was Nestor Cortes who delivered his best start of the season with seven scoreless innings. But overshadowing those two great performances was the bad news on Chisholm.

The Yankees believe it’s his UCL which could mean Tommy John surgery, baseball’s three most dreaded words. That would mean his season is over and 2025 would be in question, though since it’s his non-throwing shoulder, if he has the surgery it probably wouldn’t be a lost year.

Maybe he’ll be fine, who knows, but when is that ever the case with a Yankee injury, but if it’s worst-case scenario, the Yankees would be right back in hell at third base with the only options being Oswaldo Cabrera - who started there Tuesday night - and DJ LeMahieu.

It just never ends with the Yankees; there can’t be a moment in time when everything is quiet and copacetic. Non-stop drama with this team, and so often it’s in the form of injuries that tear apart the fabric of the team.

Yes, every team has injuries, and this season, the Yankees have actually not been as fragile as they’ve been the past few years. There are teams in MLB who have endured way more injury upheaval - take a look at the Dodgers and Braves, for instance. Most people said just cancel the NL season and put those two super teams right into the NLCS, but then each lost superstar after superstar and they’ve both had pretty meh seasons given the expectations.

But this injury is troublesome for the Yankees because of all the guys to get hurt right now, outside of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Austin Wells and Gerrit Cole, I’d say Chisholm is someone you really wanted on the field. He has done a favorable job transitioning to third base, a position he’d never played as a pro, and because he was able to handle it, his bat - which has been outstanding so far - was in the lineup every day while Cabrera was back on the bench, and LeMahieu was back in a platoon with Ben Rice.

In 14 games Chisholm was batting .316 with one double, seven homers and 11 RBIs, but now that’s probably a memory.

“We’ll just kind of mix and match and see what makes the most sense,” Boone said. “Obviously he’s been really impactful for us and hopefully this is something that’s a shorter period and we get him back and rolling. Certainly tough to not have him in there (given) what he’s meant to our team already. So do our best to support him and get him right and hopefully get him back out there.”

Here are my observations:

➤ Cortes finally found a team he could handle, though it’s all about timing and it’s probably a good thing he didn’t catch the White Sox 24 hours earlier when they had their greatest night of the season. Doing what every Yankee pitcher should be doing against this terrible team, Cortes was great - seven scoreless innings allowing just three hits and no walks with a season-high nine strikeouts. Look, he was really good, but he’s also been pretty lousy most of the year so this was a true indication of how feeble the White Sox actually are.

➤ What a night for Soto. Two-run homer in the third and solo shot in the fifth off Chicago starter Jonathan Cannon, and a solo bomb in the seventh off Fraser Ellard provided all the Yankee runs. “That’s who he is. That’s why he’s the greatest hitter in the game,” said the guy who actually is the greatest hitter in the game this season, Aaron Judge, who had two more hits and two more walks.

➤ When Soto was told by reporters what Judge said, he replied, “Look at his numbers; he’s unbelievable. He makes my job easier. When you’re hitting in front of a guy like that, you know you’re getting pitches. He’s the greatest one.”

➤ What a tandem these two are. They rank 1-2 in MLB in both OPS and on-base percentage; Judge is first and Soto third in slugging percentage; Judge is second and Soto fifth in average; Judge is first and Soto fifth in home runs; and Judge is first and Soto sixth in RBI. Think of all the great Yankee duos of the past - Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig; Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra; Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris; Alex Rodriguez with partnering with Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi or Mark Teixeira. Judge and Soto may top them all.

➤ What Soto did - hit three home runs that accounted for all of the Yankees runs in a game - has happened just four times in team history. The others were Joe DiMaggio in 1948, Mickey Mantle in 1955, and Bobby Murcer in 1973. Soto saw 19 pitches in his five at bats (he also walked and grounded out) and he swung just five times. Three left the yard. Pretty remarkable.

➤ Of course, given how Soto hit and Cortes pitched, this should have been a stress-free night, right? Come on, with this Yankees bullpen, it’s never easy. Cortes was relieved after 104 pitches, and newcomer Mark Leiter Jr. came on and sucked once again. This guy has been mostly a waste, and I sorta knew this because I still follow the Cubs and watched him be pretty mediocre over there. We wish he was merely mediocre rather than the stiff he’s been for the Yankees. He began the eighth with a 4-0 lead and walked two men, then gave up an RBI single to Luis Robert, a wonderfully talented player who is having a miserable season and is one of the most disappointing players in MLB.

➤ Tommy Kahnle rescued Leiter by getting Andrew Benintendi, though the ball he hit was scorched to first and luckily it was right at LeMahieu for the third out. Boone sent Kahnle out for the ninth because Clay Holmes is still recovering mentally and physically from his Sunday follies. Kahnle gave up a walk and a double, came out of the game and beat up a trash can.

➤ So with the tying run in the batters’ box and nobody out, Boone turned to Jake Cousins who had exactly zero saves in his brief MLB career. And hey, what do you know? Cousins got a big strikeout, then after creating more angst with a walk to load the bases, he retired Nicky Lopez and Brooks Baldwin to save the night.

⚾ The Orioles continue to underwhelm. This is something I just didn’t expect from this young and talented team, but they dropped a half-game behind the Yankees thanks to their 9-3 loss at home to regional rival Washington. Tervor Rogers, who they acquired from the Marlins at the trade deadline, had his third straight poor start for Baltimore as he gave up five runs on seven hits and two walks.

Nationals rookie James Wood, who spent the first three months here in Rochester with the Red Wings, had a career-high four hits and scored three times. He’s now hitting .283 after a slow start following his call-up in late June. The Orioles were 24 games over .500 on July 7, but since then they’ve gone 13-17 which is why the Yankees are a half-game ahead.

⚾ Jarren Duran, who outside of Rafael Devers is probably Boston’s best player, had to sit out the last two games because the team suspended him for yelling a homophobic slur at a fan Sunday. So naturally the Red Sox won both games, beating the massively disappointing Rangers 5-4 in 10 innings Monday and then 9-4 on Tuesday. So Boston is still hanging around the periphery, 6.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East and just a game behind the Royals in the race for the final AL wild-card spot.

⚾ Former Yankee Michael King threw six scoreless innings for the Padres in their 3-0 shutout of Pittsburgh which was the Pirates’ ninth loss in a row. Man, that team has some good players and obviously some great starting pitchers, so losing nine in a row is quite a thing. They’re now last in the NL Central, two games worse than the Cubs. I know we get irritated by the Yankees, but Christ almighty, being a Pirates fan must be torture.

King, who was part of the Soto trade, gave up seven hits, no walks and struck out 10. He’s been really good for San Diego, 10-6 with a 3.19 ERA, but to get something, you gotta give up something and King was undoubtedly the most important piece in the package that went to the Padres for Soto. The Padres have won nine of their last 10 and like the Diamondbacks, they are just 3.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.

⚾ Those two teams kept pace because they each won their fifth game in a row. The Dodgers, who now have Mookie Betts back after his lengthy injury absence, beat the NL Central-leading Brewers 7-2. Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith,Andy Pages and Gavin Lux all homered. And Arizona, the defending NL champion, walked off the Rockies on Jake McCarthy’s two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth.

On July 9 the Diamondbacks were 45-47 and 10 games behind the Dodgers. Since then, they’re 23-6, have made up 6.5 games, plus are now comfortably inside the playoff bubble, tied with San Diego for the top wild-card spot.

⚾ Speaking of the NL wild-card race, the Mets were on the inside last week, but now they’re two games behind Atlanta for the last spot thanks to a disastrous West Coast trip, the remnants of which are still being felt because they returned home Tuesday and lost 9-4 to the A’s. The Mets had to play three against the Angels, a single game makeup against the Cardinals in St. Louis, three in Colorado and three in Seattle and while they were away they went 4-6. The loss to A’s was their fourth straight.

⚾ The Astros are officially dangerous, as usual. What a turnaround for them as they beat the Rays for the second night in a row - I always appreciate any team that beats the Rays - and they stayed two games ahead of the Mariners atop the AL West. Yusei Kikuchi, who they acquired from Toronto at the trade deadline, pitched well again and now has a 2.70 and two wins in his three starts for the Astros.

Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve, Jeremy Pena and Jordan Alvarez continue to rake, and Kyle Tucker is getting close to returning from a long IL stint so yeah, the Astros are still the Astros and they remain the last team the Yankees want to see in the postseason. The Yankees beat them six out of seven, but all that happened in the first six weeks of the season when the Astros were in a massive slump. Since beating the Yankees in the last of those seven games, the Astros are 52-31.