Jazz Chisholm Jr. had two hits and two RBIs and Ali Sanchez blasted his first major league homer in the eighth inning to break the game open as the visiting New York Yankees defeated the Chicago White Sox 9-5 on Monday.
New York overcame an early three-run deficit for its fourth win in five games. The Yankees moved within 2 1/2 games of the idle Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the American League East.
AL Central-leading Chicago committed three errors as its lead over the second-place Cleveland Guardians fell to two games. The White Sox have lost three of their past four.
The Yankees scored a total of five runs in the seventh and eighth innings and navigated two errors in the ninth to hold on.
Ben Rice delivered a go-ahead single in the seventh, and New York maintained the lead in the bottom half when Colson Montgomery was erased at the plate while trying to score on a Chase Meidroth double.
Chisholm had a bunt single in the eighth that resulted in a run thanks to a throwing error. He scored when Sanchez connected against Sean Newcomb for a three-run shot three batters later. Sanchez was playing in his 75th major league game with six teams across five seasons.
Montgomery went 3-for-4 with two RBIs.
Jasson Dominguez and Rice contributed two hits each for New York.
Brent Headrick (6-1) delivered 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to earn the victory. David Bednar entered with runners on the corners and two outs in the ninth, and he fanned Meidroth to notch his 21st save.
Chicago reliever Bryan Hudson (3-4) allowed one run and two hits in the seventh.
The White Sox stormed to a 3-0 lead in the first inning against Yankees starter Max Fried. Colson Montgomery drove in the game’s first run with a single, and Meidroth added a sacrifice fly before Braden Montgomery punctuated the rally with an RBI triple.
White Sox rookie left-hander Noah Schultz retired the next six Yankees before control issues prompted an early exit. New York opened the fourth with two walks and a single to load the bases. Schultz departed after Anthony Volpe produced an RBI groundout but was charged with two more runs when Chisholm greeted reliever Chris Murphy with a double to right-center.
Chisholm scored the go-ahead run on a Spencer Jones groundout, but Chicago tied the game at 4-all in the fifth on an RBI single from Colson Montgomery.
Schultz permitted three runs and two hits in 3 1/3 innings with two walks and five strikeouts. Fried allowed three runs and five hits in three innings, walking two and striking out four.
