Juan Soto hit two home runs for the first time with the Yankees, and Luis Gil struck out a career-high 14 as New York defeated the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Saturday, extending their winning streak to six games.
Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Trevino also hit home runs for New York, which has won 12 of its last 14 games and improved to an AL-best 32-15. Soto went 4 for 4 with a walk and is batting .317 with 11 homers and 37 RBIs.
“It was a fun day,” said Soto, who has bounced back after a 3-for-25 slump on a six-game road trip. New York is 12-2-1 in series, matching 2002 as the only time since 1950 the Yankees have won 12 of their first 15 series.
Soto tied the score in the first with a 417-foot home run into the right-field bleachers, had an RBI single in the second, and hit another solo shot in the fifth with a 437-foot home run into the deeper right-field bleachers.
It was the 18th multihomer game for Soto, who joined Stanton and Aaron Judge to make New York the first team this year with three players having double-digit home runs.
Gil (5-1) won his fourth straight start and fifth consecutive decision, allowing one run, five hits, and one walk in six innings. Gil has given up two runs over 24 1/3 innings in his last four starts.
“I have a fantastic teacher in Gerrit Cole,” Gil said through a translator about his Cy Young Award-winning teammate. “He’s always nearby, offering me advice.”
The 25-year-old right-hander averaged 96.4 mph with his fastball, which is 0.5 mph faster than his usual speed. He broke the Yankees’ rookie record for strikeouts, surpassing the 13 set by Orlando Hernández on Aug. 13, 1998, who threw the ceremonial first pitch on Saturday.
“I was really happy to meet him after the game,” Gil said. “It was great for him to be here and connect after the game.”
After a challenging 29-pitch first inning that included 13 changeups, Gil struck out seven consecutive batters starting in the fourth inning, interrupted only by Eloy Jiménez’s single.
“That might have been his best fastball of the year, which says a lot,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone remarked.
Brad Keller (0-2) surrendered a career-high four home runs. In his second start of the season, he allowed six runs—five earned—and seven hits in four-plus innings. The White Sox batters struck out a season-high 16 times as they fell to a major league-worst 4-18 on the road and 14-32.
Andrew Benintendi’s RBI double to left gave Chicago the lead in the first inning, but Gil left the bases loaded when Korey Lee took a fastball for a called third strike.
Soto tied the score, Judge reached on an infield hit, and Stanton hit an RBI double off the right-center wall for a 2-1 lead. Stanton then homered to right-center in the fourth inning, his 11th of the season and fifth in nine games.
