CHICAGO -- The Yankees were flashing their leather, opening the 11th inning with a pair of excellent defensive plays -- Paul Goldschmidt scooping a short-hop throw at first base, then Ryan McMahon sliding at third to smother a hot grounder.
The tying run was still dancing 90 feet away, but thanks to his teammates’ efforts, Camilo Doval had a chance to escape. McMahon pounded his glove, watching closely. From behind the bars of his mask, so did Ali Sánchez , noticing Munetaka Murakami seemed a little slow getting back to the bag.
That tempted the Yankees catcher to gamble on a pickoff, a costly decision that proved pivotal in a 6-5, 12-inning loss to the White Sox on Wednesday.
“Me and McMahon felt that he was a little slow getting back to the base,” Sánchez said. “I just made a bad throw. I’ve got to make a better throw.”
When Doval threw a 2-0 sinker up and away to Andrew Benintendi, Sánchez whipped from his knees down to third base, forcing Murakami to dive back to the bag. The throw one-hopped McMahon, glanced off his glove and rolled down the left-field line as Murakami charged home with the tying run.
McMahon said he sensed they’d caught Murakami off-guard.
“The first leadoff he got was solid, but he was kind of standing tall,” McMahon said. “The second one, I thought personally he was a little bit lazy. Then I moved off the bag and I saw him extend to that little cut off the grass, probably past it a little bit.
“It was there. Ali and I, we just didn’t execute. We did a [expletive] job on both ends. I’ve got to block that and he’s got to get it there. It ended up hurting us.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he had no problem with Sánchez’s decision to throw -- only the execution.
“We’ve got to have a good throw. He’s playing catch,” Boone said. “We’re big leaguers. We’re not going to not do things. Obviously an option is holding it, but it comes down to playing catch better there.”
Doval escaped the inning by inducing a groundout, but the Yanks left the bases loaded in the 12th. Ben Rice struck out and Sánchez grounded out, setting up Chicago’s opportunity in the home half.
Edgar Quero drove in the winning run off Ryan Yarbrough, the last man standing in a thin bullpen. Yarbrough threw 51 pitches Sunday against the Phillies.
“Tough loss,” Boone said. “Credit to them, they put some big at-bats and hits together to get back into it. We just couldn’t finish it off.”
It was a game that tilted in the Yankees’ direction through seven innings. Spencer Jones hit a three-run homer as part of a four-run first, staking American League Cy Young Award candidate Cam Schlittler to a commanding lead.
Schlittler struck out eight over 6 1/3 sterling innings, eventually seeing his 14-inning scoreless innings streak snapped by a Benintendi RBI double. Even though the Yankees were unable to add on against Davis Martin, it seemed as though it would hold up.
Then came the eighth, when Chase Meidroth doubled off Fernando Cruz, who had recorded the last two outs of the seventh to freeze Schlittler’s line. Paul Blackburn entered after a popout, leaving a four-seamer up to Sam Antonacci, who lofted a two-run homer just over the wall in right field.
“I felt like I beat him, really,” Blackburn said. “He hit it out of the park, but I still felt like it wasn’t great contact quality. He skied it a little bit and it just kind of snuck over.”
Blackburn started Murakami with a curveball and the slugger launched it for a game-tying homer. Blackburn entered Wednesday’s appearance with an 0.92 ERA across his past 25 appearances, with just four earned runs allowed over 39 1/3 innings.
“I started [Murakami] off with a back-door breaking ball and I thought it was one of my better ones I’ve thrown,” Blackburn said. “He put a good swing on it and he made me pay. He’s a good hitter.”
The Yanks made one last push in the 11th, with Sánchez aboard as the automatic runner, moving to third base on a groundout. Anthony Volpe came off the bench to lift a sacrifice fly, sending Sánchez sliding home safely with the go-ahead run -- and no way of knowing how quickly his evening would turn.
“That’s the good part about this sport,” Sánchez said. “Tomorrow is another day, and we’ve got a chance to get the series.”