CHICAGO — No. 9 batter Jayson Nix stirred up his team’s offense without even swinging the bat and helped the Chicago White Sox beat the New York Yankees for a third straight game.
“The chances of that happening are not very good,” Nix said Saturday after he drew four walks — two with the bases loaded — in the White Sox’s 14-4 victory.
“Baseball is crazy. You get walked four times and twice with the bases loaded. You get up in that situation to drive guys in, but you got to take what they give you.”
With Nix getting on base five straight times and No. 8 hitter Chris Getz contributing three hits, it helped the top of the White Sox order be productive. Leadoff hitter Scott Podsednik and No. 2 man Gordon Beckham had four RBIs each.
“Did we really? That’s good. It means the guys at the bottom of the lineup are getting on and doing a lot of good things,” Beckham said. “Jason Nix had two or three at-bats today that were unbelievable and got walks out of them. That’s some serious discipline to do that.”
The White Sox scored six in the second off A.J. Burnett and put up six more in the eighth in a 17-hit attack.
Chicago lefty John Danks (9-7) worked six-plus innings for the win, giving up seven hits and four runs.
Podsednik, who’d snapped an 0-for-16 slump Friday, had a two-run single in the second and drew Chicago’s third bases-loaded walk, off reliever Phil Coke in the eighth. Beckham hit two-run doubles in the second and the eighth.
Beckham did make one mistake that didn’t turn out to be costly. After reaching third base in the eighth, the rookie forgot how many outs there were and was tagged out to end the inning.
“That’s me being an idiot. It will happen every once in a while, but hopefully not for the rest of this year,” Beckham said. “I just kinda lost track, I started talking to Derek Jeter and didn’t realize I was still playing a baseball game.”
The White Sox had six of their hits in the second inning against Burnett (10-5).
A.J. Pierzynski, Carlos Quentin and Getz all singled to load the bases before Nix drew a walk on a close pitch to force in a run. Podsednik followed with a two-run single, Beckham delivered his first two-run double to right and Jermaine Dye had an RBI single for the 6-0 lead.
“They did a good job of not trying to do too much. They got some key hits and quickly got hits. The second inning was the whole ballgame right there,” Burnett said.
So how about walking Nix with the bases loaded twice?
“The first one I thought was a good pitch. What can you do? The other one was unacceptable,” said Burnett, who gave up 10 hits and seven runs in 4 2-3 innings and left after issuing Nix’s second bases-loaded walk in the fifth.
The Yankees have struggled defensively during the series. On a play at the plate in the eighth, Posada tried to tag Mark Kotsay with his mitt even though the ball was in his hand. Kotsay was safe.
“Sometimes when you don’t pitch well things can go a little awry,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s no excuse, but you see it happen. It is surprising to me because we have played so well defensively.”
New York loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth but managed only one run. That came on Hairston’s fielder’s choice on a soft liner that dropped in front of left fielder Quentin. Quentin made a nice fake as if he were going to catch the ball and then was able to field it and throw to third to force Posada.
Danks gave up a single to Jeter and walked Nick Swisher to start the seventh and was replaced by Tony Pena. Alex Rodriguez had an RBI infield single to cut Chicago’s lead to 7-4.
NOTES: Jake Peavy arrived in Chicago to meet his new teammates and hold a news conference. On the disabled list with an ankle problem, he also played catch in the batting cage. … New York starter Joba Chamberlain will have his next start pushed back until Thursday. “It’s part of the ongoing plan with working things out with Joba,” Girardi said. … White Sox SS Alexei Ramirez missed his third straight game with a sprained ankle but could return by Wednesday.
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