If the Yankees were looking for any more clarity about the weak parts on a roster that’s looked mostly dominant even without Aaron Judge, they got it on Thursday in The Bronx.
What had been a tight game against a White Sox team they had hammered the previous two games, turned on its head with one pitch from Camilo Doval, the right-hander who’s been unreliable since he was acquired from the Giants nearly a year ago.
Faced with the unenviable task of entering with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the eighth of a tie game, Doval faced pinch-hitter Andrew Benintendi and gave up a grand slam on his first pitch in a 5-1 loss.
Doval was far from the only reason the Yankees had their four-game winning streak snapped, losing just the second time in 10 games.
An offense that had piled up 30 runs in their previous three games, couldn’t get anything going against lefty opener Bryan Hudson or right-hander Sean Burke, who had been knocked around by the Dodgers and Phillies in his previous two appearances, but limited the Yankees to one run in 7 1/3 innings to finish the game.
The Yankees brought a season-high 3 ½-game lead in the AL East over the idle Rays- who were just swept by the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
But despite a solid start by lefty Ryan Weathers — who gave up just one run in 6 ⅓ innings — the Yankees were unable to finish off a sweep of Chicago.
Weathers had allowed at least five runs in each of his previous three starts — and four of his last five — but struck out the side in order in the top of the first, an indication of how powerful his stuff was on Thursday.
He began the second by giving up a leadoff homer to Colson Montgomery after allowing seven homers in those three previous starts.
But that would be all he would give up to the White Sox on this night.
He responded to the Montgomery homer by facing one batter over the minimum until he walked Montgomery with one out in the seventh to end Weathers’ outing.
Ryan McMahon got to Burke to open the bottom of the third with an opposite-field homer to left-center that tied the game at 1-1.
José Caballero gave the Yankees a brief scoring chance against Burke in the fifth, as he reached second on a single and an error by center fielder Tristan Peters.
But Caballero was picked off second and McMahon whiffed.
With one out in the seventh, after Jasson Domínguez was called out — barely — on a grounder to first, Anthony Volpe, who replaced Jazz Chisholm Jr. after he was forced to exit after fouling a ball off his groin, boomed one off the left field wall.
As Junior Pérez raced down the ball, Volpe tried to get to third and was thrown out.
In the eighth, Fernando Cruz gave up a leadoff double to pinch-hitter Luisangel Acuña before lefty Tim Hill entered and hit pinch-hitter Sam Antonacci, as well as Tristan Peters — Peters on an 0-2 pitch — to load the bases with no one out.
With the infield in, Hill struck out Chase Meidroth before Doval entered to face Benintendi, who tagged Doval with a shot out to right on a 99-mph sinker that wasn’t low enough.
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It didn’t help that the Yankees saw Volpe get thrown out trying to steal second to end the fourth, one of several questionable baserunning moves on a rough night at the Stadium.