Darryl Strawberry continued to terrorize Chicago pitching with a three-run homer and a solo blast before he left the game in the sixth inning with shin splints as the New York Yankees defeated the Chicago White Sox, 8-4.
Strawberry belted three homers in the Yankees' 9-2 rout of the White Sox Tuesday night. He had five home runs and eight RBI in the three-game series.
"When you get good swings and you stay on the ball you can hit it a long way," said Strawberry. "It's been a long time since I felt good at the plate. The extra work with Chris (batting coach Chambliss) getting me off the plate and extending my arms has helped. It took a while to get into the groove because of the quality of pitching."
"He's daring (Strawberry) people to get him out," said Yankees manager Joe Torre. "Right now, he's locked in. It was just a matter of him getting comfortable."
New York has not lost a series at home all season and is 19-0-5 in its last 24 series, dating back to last August 28th when the Yankees lost a makeup game to Kansas City. The last multi-game series the Yanks lost at home came last August 10-13 when they dropped three of five to Cleveland.
"We don't like to lose at home," said Torre. "We feel comfortable here. It was good to beat a team like this, especially after last night's loss."
Tino Martinez went 3-for-3 with two RBI and Cecil Fielder had two hits and drove in two runs for the Yankees.
"Everybody's time is going to come, you don't have to go solo around here," said Fielder. "We have a good ballclub here. You know you have to go out there and score runs for your pitcher. Then if you can hold them, you get wins."
Bob Wickman (4-1) pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the win. Mariano Rivera worked the final 1 1/3 innings for his third save.
Darren Lewis homered and drove in three runs for the White Sox.
Chicago starter Luis Andujar (0-2) lasted just three innings and surrendered six runs on six hits. He has allowed 17 runs and 27 hits in 20 2/3 innings in four starts this season.
"The guy (Andujar) didn't have any command of his pitches today," said White Sox manager Terry Bevington. "Keep in mind we didn't give him any support. Outside of one big inning, we couldn't get anything going for him."
The Yankees jumped on Andujar for two runs in the first inning. Derek Jeter led off with a single, Wade Boggs walked and both runners advanced on a grounder by Paul O'Neill. Fielder then delivered a sacrifice fly to score Jeter and Martinez followed with an RBI single. After Bernie Williams singled, Strawberry hit a deep drive to right that was caught at the wall by Dave Martinez.
New York erupted for four runs after two were out in the third inning. Fielder and Martinez hit back-to-back doubles to increase New York's lead to 3-0. After Bernie Williams walked, Strawberry hit a three-run homer to open the lead to 6-0.
But New York starter David Weathers failed to make it through the fourth inning. Weathers, who was acquired at the trade deadline from Florida for pitcher Mark Hutton, pitched three scoreless innings before running into trouble in the fourth.
Robin Ventura led off the fourth with a single and Martinez followed with a double to the gap in left-center. Lewis followed with a two-run double and then stole third base. After Ron Karkovice fouled out, Lewis scored on a grounder by Ozzie Guillen to cap the three-run inning. Tony Phillips singled to center to keep the inning alive and Weathers was relieved by Wickman.
Strawberry led off the fifth inning with an upper deck home run to right off left-hander Mike Bertotti. It was the eighth homer in 89 at-bats for Strawberry, who left the game in the sixth inning due to shin splints.
"I think there's a problem with my Achilles, I think that's what's hurting my shins," said Strawberry.
Lewis hit a solo homer in the eighth off Yankees reliever Dale Polley.