NEW YORK — Aaron Judge smiled and chuckled.”A legitimate walk off,” he said. “We’ll take it. I’m not complaining one bit.”Liam Hendriks forced in the game-ending run with a bases-loaded walk to the 6-foot-7 slugger in the ninth inning, and the New York Yankees overcame Aroldis Chapman’s first blown save of the year to beat the Chicago White Sox 5-4 on Sunday and extend their winning streak to a season-high six games.An afternoon that began with Jameson Taillon completing a historic scoreless turn through the New York rotation ended with the Yankees’ second walk-off win during a three-game sweep of the AL Central leaders, New York’s fourth walk-off win in its last five home games. The Yankees are 23-9 since a 5-10 start.”This is what we expect. We expect to be a great team,” manager Aaron Boone said. “For the better part of a few weeks now, it’s starting to sync up and and we’re seeing the results.”Judge thought this was his first game-ending RBI since Double-A, when his 10th-inning homer lifted Trenton over Portland on April 16, 2015, more than a year before the debut of a big league career that has included a pair of All-Star selections.New York led 4-3 before pinch-hitter Andrew Vaughn’s one-out homer, an opposite-field shot to right in the ninth off Chapman (4-0), who blew a save for the first time in 12 chances this year and gave up his first earned run. Vaughn sprinted around the bases.”The swing he put on him was absolutely perfect. Perfect,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said. “We should be celebrating, but we’re not.”Clint Frazier, who missed the previous five starts with a stiff neck, singled off Aaron Bummer (0-3) leading off the bottom half for his first three-hit game this year, lifting his average to .171. Frazier stole his second base of the game as Brett Gardner struck out, and AL batting champion DJ LeMahieu was intentionally walked.Tyler Wade hit a slow six-hopper to Nick Madrigal and beat the throw from the charging second baseman for an infield single.Hendriks came in to face Judge, who memorably hit a go-ahead, two-run homer off him in the first inning of the 2018 AL wild-card game against Oakland.Judge swung under a 97.7 mph fastball near his neck, took a slider in the dirt and another that sailed high. Hendriks missed badly upstairs with a fastball and, with catcher Zack Collins targeting the low, outside corner, threw a fastball that wound up nearly a foot above the strike zone.Judge softly threw down his bat as Frazier trotted home with the Yankees’ first walk-off walk since Juan Miranda against Boston on Sept. 26, 2010.”I’ll keep that ball, for sure,” Judge said.The White Sox (26-19) have lost three straight for the first time this year. The Sox grounded into a pair of double plays, a day after hitting into four and two days after grounding into a triple play.Jose Abreu’s 450-foot, two-run homer in the sixth off Wandy Peralta went over the visitors’ bullpen in left and cut the gap to 3-2, but shortstop Tim Anderson made a run-scoring throwing error while trying to complete a double play in the bottom half.Yasmani Grandal homered in the seventh against Chad Green, a ball a fan behind the right-field wall caught over Frazier’s glove.”I thought that I was going to get it,” Frazier said. “He just caught the ball at a higher point than where I was at.”
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