CHICAGO _ After grinding out a victory late Sunday afternoon against the lowly San Diego Padres, which avoided a three-game sweep, the New York Yankees came two time zones east and didn't do much of anything well Monday in an 8-2 matinee loss to the Chicago White Sox in front of 30,955 at U.S. Cellular Field.
CC Sabathia (5-6), less than three weeks ago among the AL leaders in ERA, turned in a third straight poor start, allowing five runs and eight hits, including two homers, in six innings. He's allowed a combined 16 runs in his last three starts _ and four home runs _ pushing his ERA to 3.48 from 2.20.
"The stuff is good, the stuff is there, but it's just not executing pitches when I need to," said Sabathia, who did strike out nine. "It's three in a row where I haven't pitched well. I can't keep the ball in the ballpark. ... It's incredibly frustrating. We came out, had the lead early, and I couldn't hold it."
Joe Girardi, whose rotation overall has staggered as the Yankees (40-42) have dropped six of nine, said of Sabathia: "I thought his stuff was much better than his numbers indicated, but that's baseball. You have to make pitches all the time."
The Yankees' offense _ other than Starlin Castro, who had four hits, and Chase Headley, whose two-run homer in the second made it 2-0 _ blew a myriad of scoring chances throughout the day.
The Yankees _ now 1-3 on this three-city, 10-game trip _ were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against righthander James Shields and were 0-for-13 for the game. They stranded 11.
"That's the difference in the game," Girardi said. "They got the hits when they needed them; we didn't. We had plenty of opportunities."
Shields, who came in 3-9 with a 5.85 ERA, was far from sharp but survived six innings, allowing two runs and five hits.
The White Sox (43-40) had 13 hits, three by Todd Frazier, who reached base in all five plate appearances.
After Sabathia stranded two in the bottom of the first, Headley gave the lefthander a lead in the second.
Castro, in a 6-for-34 slide coming in, including zero for his last 11, singled with one out. After Didi Gregorius lined to right, Headley lined a 1-and-0 cutter into the seats in right for his sixth homer of the season to make it 2-0. Sabathia provided a nine-pitch shutdown inning in the bottom half, striking out two.
The lefthander was not as fortunate in the third as Jason Coats singled and leadoff man Tim Anderson, who reached on an infield single in the first, jumped on a first-pitch fastball and blasted it to center for his fourth homer of the season, tying it at 2.
The Yankees squandered a chance to retake the lead in the fourth. Brian McCann singled and went to third on Castro's double down the leftfield line. McCann stayed at third when Gregorius, who had a rough day in the field with a career-high three errors, grounded to first and, after Headley walked on four pitches to load the bases, Aaron Hicks flied to right.
Frazier doubled with one out in the fifth and eventually came in on Brett Lawrie's sacrifice fly to center to make it 3-2.
Dioner Navarro, a Yankees killer from his days with the Blue Jays, followed with a two-run homer to make it 5-2.
The White Sox added three runs (two earned) against Luis Cessa in the seventh and eighth innings to make it 8-2.
The Yankees stranded five over the final three innings.
"It's frustrating," said Brett Gardner, who went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. "It's a tough day today, complete turnaround with the day game and the time change and all that, but that's part of it. Hopefully, we get some rest tonight and are ready to go tomorrow."
