White Sox Top Yankees in 12

July 30, 2026

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About a week or so ago, I announced that the swoon was over. It certainly is.

I would be impressed if Aaron Boone was able to say, "The reason we started winning is _____." But he doesn't. And he can't. He has no real answers for why the Yankees go weeks playing like the 1962 Mets and he has no reasons why the Yankees suddenly start playing like the 1965 Dodgers - a team that hit little and won by great pitching. The Yankees don't have Koufax and Drysdale, but they do have Schlittler, Cole, and Fried. And for today's game, that's a darn good substitute.

The Game:

Last night the Yankees took on the Chicago White Sox in the third game of a four game series. The game was on some streaming service, I don't know or care which one. It was also, supposedly on the MLB Network, but here in Bergen County, New Jersey, Optimum TV doesn't provide the MLB Network.

As such, the following is as much of the game as I was able to watch:

As For the Rest:

If the Yankees and MLB don't care enough to provide the game for the fans to watch, it is very difficult for me to care, at all, about that game. The powers that be in baseball think it's a good idea to take the game away from the fans, or to make them pay countless times over to see the product. This is a strategy, that over time, will help destroy the fanbase.

My recap comes strictly from the ESPN GameCast that I looked at at times throughout the night, but I did not "watch" the game that way. If the Yankees don't want me to watch, I'll find other (often better things) to do with my time.

• The Yankees scored four runs in the top of the first inning highlighted by a Spencer Jones three-run home run. Yankees 4-0

• Cam Schlittler seemed to cruise through 6 innings. He gave up one hit and no walks through 6, but walked a batter, hit a batter, and an out later gave up an RBI double to Andrew Benintendi.

• Fernando Cruz came on and retired the two batters he faced. Yankees 4-1

• In the bottom of the 8th, Cruz allowed a double, got an out and was lifted for Paul Blackburn.

• Blackburn gave up a two-run homer and then a solo homer. Yankees 4, White Sox 4

• You know what is painful? Wanting to go to sleep, having to write a game recap, not being able to see the game, continually checking ESPN knowing the game might end at any minute, and having two teams fail to score the gift run in the 10th.

• Anthony Volpe hit a sacrifice fly! Yankees 5, Sox 4

• NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! An error on a pick-off attempt? NY 5, Chi 5

• It seems the Beatles will release a new Rubber Soul remixed album with various outtakes and such in October. I love the Beatles, but I don't need to hear 753 different versions of We Can Work It Out. You know which Beatles songs I enjoy? The ones they originally released. I'm tired of the continual re-re-re-re-re-re-release of the same songs. I know, there's an extra drum beat in the 13th take of Act Naturally and George coughs as Ringo sneezes on Take 658 of Norwegian Wood. But enough is enough.

• The Yankees had a man on third an no outs in the 12th, and eventually the bases loaded with one out - and couldn't score.

• I played a Monopoly quiz on Sporcle. In the quiz, I had to name every space on the board. I missed one - Oriental Ave. I should have known that. It's late and I am bored. That's my excuse.

• The White Sox won in the 12th on a single. Finally!

Other Thoughts:

As I have been saying for a long time, the Yankees will make the playoffs. A team doesn't have to be great to make the playoffs, they just need to be a little better than pretty good.

Or... maybe I need to change that. Right now, the Cleveland Guardians are the last Wild Card team in the A.L.. If the season ended last night (as I wrote this) the Guardians, with a record of 55-54 (.505) would be in the playoffs. That's not a little better than pretty good, that's one game better than mediocre.

There will be those in the media and fans who celebrate the Yankees making the playoffs, but let's be honest and completely fair - making the playoffs today is no big deal.

If .500 makes the playoffs, the Yankees would have also reached the post season in all of the following seasons (that they didn't) across their history:

• 1903

• 1904

• 1906

• 1910

• 1911

• 1916

• 1919

• 1920

• 1924

• 1929

• 1930

• 1931

• 1933

• 1934

• 1935

• 1940

• 1944

• 1945

• 1946

  ... wait, this is getting silly.

I will make this easier, the Yankees would have made the playoffs nine additional times before 1926 and then every single year from 1926 through 1965. EVERY SINGLE YEAR!

The only season from 1919 to 1965 that the Yankees wouldn't have made the playoffs would have been 1925, the year of Babe Ruth's famous bellyache.

The Yankees would have also made the playoffs during the CBS /Early Steinbrenner years in:

• 1968

• 1970

• 1971

• 1972

• 1974

• 1975

They would have made the playoffs every year in the 1980s save for 1982 and 1989.

All this to say that just making the playoffs today, for the Yankees, is not a big deal.

Water down the talent and make it easier to get in, and getting in isn't such an accomplishment. We will be told that the Yankees are amazing for making it, but the truth is for a team with the resources that the Yankees have, it is almost impossible not to make it.

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I know some will argue that it is more difficult to win a World Series today than it had been, but, let's be fair here - if the Yankees got an extra 41 chances to be in the playoffs, they would have a lot more World Championships than the 27 they have.

It was more difficult to win a World Series when a team had to finish first. What that also assured was that the team they'd be playing, who also finished first, was a very good to great team, not slightly better than mediocre who happened , in an off year, to get through the better teams.

That will happen on occasion, the poorer teams will advance, but it's not the way to build championship teams - as evidenced by the fact that the Yankees no longer routinely win World Series.

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All that being said, the Yankees have a great chance to win it all this year because they have a very strong start rotation (should they all be healthy in October).

Getting a lockdown closer would solidify the pitching tremendously. Winning through great pitching seems to be the best strategy the Yankees can follow in 2026. A lockdown closer would have helped the Yanks tonight.

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The back-to-back eighth inning homers allowed by the Yankees probably just increased the cost for Mason Miller.

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It seems that Aaron Boone is tired of answering questions about Giancarlo Stanton's injury and possible return. He asked reporters to not ask about that any more. Imagine. This is the Yankees today, "Please don't ask any tough questions."

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The Yankees play Thursday afternoon at 2:10. Ryan Weathers will take the mound for the New Yorkers.