About Yesterday

White Sox 3 --- Yankees 2

Ed Botti

August 31, 2025

Photo AP

Since 1957 the Yankees’ all-time home run leaderboard contained the best of the best with Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra rounding off the top 5.

Babe Ruth - 659

Mickey Mantle - 536

Lou Gehrig - 493

Joe DiMaggio: 361

Yogi Berra – 358

All Hall of Famers. All Winners.

On this Sunny last day of August on the Southside of Chicago Aaron Judge, in front of 27,810 witnesses, added his name to that illustrious list when he crushed his 358th career home run, matching Yogi Berra for fifth place in franchise history.

Judge just missed his second home run of the day in the third inning, doubling off the top of the wall in right-center field, then added a single in the fifth to finish the game a triple shy of the elusive cycle.

As the day began, the Yankees were looking to complete a 4 game sweep against the White Sox and to extend their current road winning streak to an even 10 games.

Sweeps in MLB are very difficult to achieve. All you have to do is look back exactly 1 week, and ask the Red Sox.

As the day began the main things I was interested in was how Gil would pitch, how the Yanks would hit off soft tossing left Martin Perez, and how they would execute having 12 straight games against tough teams beginning Tuesday in Houston.

Of course, I wanted them to win. But I wanted to see them take it to the Sox, force mistakes, and make the big plays because the next 12 games will not be batting practice. They will be hard fought games, tight games, most likely won by the team that makes the least amount of mistakes and executes fundamentals the best.

Even Meatloaf will agree, 3 out of 4 ain’t bad. But I did not see what I had hoped to see.

Quick Stats:

The Yanks struck out 10 times and only had 6 hits. They were a weak 1-5 with RISP.

Not exactly a good tune up for what stands in front of them.

I know, they did just win 3 out of 4 and 7 in a row. But, at this point of the season I want to see the killer instinct rise up.

In case you don’t remember, in the first week of this season, I wrote: “The overall goal of this team should be to get back to the World Series, and dominate the Dodgers. Every single movement, step, and pitch should be executed with that in mind”.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened, but they still can turn that on and dominate September, and I was hoping to see that grit on Sunday.

MAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Gil looked a little shaky at the start, but settled in pretty good to go 5 1/3 and only giving up 2 runs on 4 hits. He struck out 7 while walking 2.

I was happy with Gil, until Boone walked out of the dugout in the 6th to take the ball from him in a 2 -2 game, and Gil handed the ball over in an indifferent unemotional way.

I was looking to see fire in his eyes, and a little fight to stay in the game and beat the next hitter.

It worked out fine as Cruz got a quick double play. But, I wanted to see determination and fight in Gil. He will need it very soon.

Big Story:

This was a fairly quick 2 hour 30 minute game with 5 runs scored cumulatively. Both Boston and Toronto won their games, so the Yanks now stand 3 games behind Toronto and a half game up on the Red Sox for that wild card.

The next 12 games will be critical for not just the Yanks but also for the Blue Jays and Red Sox.

Just a like a single game, the winner of this 3 way battle in the AL East will come down to which team makes the fewest mistakes, and cashes in on the most scoring opportunities by executing the fundamentals of creating runs.

In other words, which team wants it the most?

Player(s) of the Game

I’ll give the belt today to Aaron Judge. His 3-5 and history making home run deserve it.

My runner up will be Fernando Cruz who looked great in his 1 2/3 innings pitched. He looks ready mentally and physically to possibly be a huge player down the stretch and in October. He is fearless.

Notable Performances:

I am not suggesting he has overcome all that has been ailing him this season, but I liked the game Volpe played. He made a very difficult and dangerous catch 215 feet from home plate in left center field and went 1-3 at the plate.

He is still a concern, at least to me, but he had a very good series, and that should be noted.

Better to Forget:

I’d like to forget the performance of home plate umpire Adam Hamari. He was terrible for both sides. It is not an easy job, we get it. But at a minimum, can he at least be consistent? What was a ball to one player became strike 3 to another. That had to be an incredibly frustrating game to play.

My Take:

The Yankees will have a day off today and then begin the biggest challenge of the season.

3 games in Houston and then 9 more against the Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox. This is the time for them to look in the mirror and take this challenge on with a vengeance.

It is now time for all of the post-game rhetoric, early hooks, base running mistakes, errors and missed opportunities to be put out to pasture. If the Yankees want to be taken seriously in 2025, the next 12 games will have a lot to do with that end.

From this point forward, it is go time. Everything they have been training for, games played hurt and all of the sacrifices made were all done to get to October whole and hungry.

Tuesday it all starts.

Happy Labor Day.