Chris Sale held the New York Yankees to three hits over 7 2/3 innings, and Alex Rios broke a tie with his 20th home run of the season as the White Sox completed a three-game series sweep with a 2-1 victory on Wednesday night at U.S. Cellular Field.
Sale improved to 15-4 while lowering his ERA to 2.65 as the Sox swept the Yankees for the first time at home since 1991. Sale struck out 13 and walked one in one of his best performances of the season.
In a year highlighted by bounce-back seasons from Rios, Adam Dunn and Jake Peavy, the Sox (68-55) have shown a knack for rebounding after tough losses. Before the Yankees came to town, they were swept by the Royals in Kansas City.
The victory preserved the AL Central leaders’ two-game lead over the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central.
The Sox scored a run in the third when Gordon Beckham led off against Phil Hughes with a double, advanced to third on Dewayne Wise’s bunt single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kevin Youkilis.
The Yankees tied it on Derek Jeter’s homer in the sixth, giving Jeter a home run in three consecutive games for the first time during his career.
Rios broke the tie in the sixth, leaving the rest to Sale and reliever Brett Myers and Addison Reed.
With his pitch count at 109 and Jeter coming to bat with two outs in the eighth and nobody on, Sale was lifted after striking out Casey McGehee and Ichiro Suzuki. Myers got the third out with help from Beckham, who made a tough play ranging to his left for Jeter’s grounder in the hole.
Reed got the last three outs for his 23rd save.
