CHICAGO — Sunday’s loss that ended a season-high seven-game winning streak doesn’t invalidate the fact that the Yankees have been playing much better of late, winning 14 of their last 19 games. Here are three takeaways from their series at Rate Field against the White Sox, one in which they won three of four:
1. Aaron Judge continues his climb into the pantheon of all-time Yankee greats
Judge’s first-inning blast was his 43rd home run of the season and the 358th of his career, tying him with Yogi Berra for fifth on the franchise’s all-time list. Next up is Joe DiMaggio, who is fourth with 361.
“It’s the company he belongs in,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s certainly earned his way into those rarefied-air names with the career he’s put together so far.”
Judge, 33, who since his 52-homer rookie season in 2017 has consistently seen his name on various power number lists with those names — and others such as Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Lou Gehrig — typically deflects those kinds of accolades while paying homage to the franchise’s unmatched history of stars. “The most important thing is trying to get a win,” Judge said. “Getting a chance to tie one of the greatest, if not the greatest Yankee, in homers is pretty special. You knew how much it meant being a New York Yankee to him. I feel the same way. I’m honored to wear this jersey.”
2. Luis Gil keeps rounding into form
Gil, whose first start of the season didn’t come until Aug. 3 as he missed the first four months with a right lat strain, had his best overall start since his return. That was because the command issues that plagued him in his first five starts — he walked 17 in 24 innings — were mostly missing (though he did walk two in 5 1⁄3 innings Sunday).
Gil, last year’s AL Rookie of the Year, said he dialed back his high-90s fastball for better command in the early going but still proved capable of dialing it up when needed.
“I’m feeling more comfortable, definitely,” he said through his interpreter. “I’m finding a better groove attacking the zone. Every outing I keep getting closer to where I was last year. That’s what we’re striving for.”
3. Sunday ended (for now, anyway) the soft portion of the schedule
The Yankees have feasted on a regular dose of baseball’s bottom-feeders in recent weeks, which has, to their credit, allowed them to not only solidify their playoff position in the AL wild-card race but put them right back in the mix for the AL East title. The three-game series that starts Tuesday night against the AL West-leading Astros in Houston is the beginning of a schedule gantlet in which the Yankees also will take on the AL East-leading Blue Jays, the AL Central-leading Tigers and the Red Sox, currently a half-game behind the Yankees in the wild-card race. That stretch won’t decide the season, as the schedule significantly softens after that, but it will go a long way toward determining the Yankees’ seed in October.
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.