The end came swiftly for James Baldwin in his stab at a perfect season.
It took only one time against the New York Yankees for Baldwin’s nine-game winning streak to become a memory.
The Yankees handed Baldwin his first loss of the season Thursday night in a 7-0 drubbing at Comiskey Park, taking two of three from the White Sox on the eve of their big showdown against Cleveland.
“I wasn’t proud to walk off the field as a loser, but stuff happens,” Baldwin said. “I was able to go out and continue pitching and didn’t give up. I just didn’t have it today. But I’ll tell you what, I’ve got [incentive] for my next start.”
New York right-hander Ramiro Mendoza (5-2) put a muzzle on the Sox offense, shutting it out for the first time this season. Mendoza allowed four hits in a complete game.
Baldwin entered Thursday night with a 7-0 record, the best start by a Sox pitcher since Wilson Alvarez’s 8-0 opening in 1994, but was rocked by the bottom of the Yankees’ order. He gave up seven runs on 10 hits in 52/3 innings, his shortest outing since a 9-4 win over Detroit on April 23. That rain-delayed game was also the only other time in eight starts Baldwin has allowed as many as four runs.
Ricky Ledee’s two-out double in the second inning drove in the Yankees’ first run, and Scott Brosius followed with a two-run homer to put Baldwin in an early hole.
Pitching with a deficit has been foreign territory for Baldwin. The Sox had trailed in only three of the 571/3 innings Baldwin had pitched coming into Thursday–never by more than one run.
But the Yanks weren’t through, scoring three in the third in another two-out rally. After a single by Paul O’Neill and a double by Tino Martinez, manager Jerry Manuel called for an intentional walk to Jorge Posada, loading the bases. Shane Spencer foiled Manuel’s strategy with an RBI single, and Ledee singled home two more to make it 6-0.
Wilson Delgado’s solo homer in the sixth increased the lead. One infield hit later, Baldwin was removed.
“One of the reasons why I left him in was to see how he’d respond, and he did [really] well,” Manuel said. “J.B. will be fine. This might relieve some of the pressure on him to be so fine, so perfect. He might come out and get on a roll.”
Despite the subpar outing, Baldwin received a standing ovation from many in the crowd of 23,636.
“It was very classy,” Baldwin said. “I appreciated it very much.”
The rest of the night was anticlimactic, with the exception of a brief delay in the eighth when a man ran onto the field. The trespasser stripped down to his underwear. He, too, received an ovation as security guards escorted him from the field.
But the moment the Sox have awaited for five seasons arrives Friday night, when Cleveland comes to town with first place on the line.
“This should be a series, hopefully, full of intensity,” Manuel said. “You always like to play at that level of intensity where every pitch, every out, every at-bat is huge.”
