Cabrera, Ramirez homer as White Sox beat Yankees 8

Billy Pierce, a seven-time All-Star pitcher who played in two World Series and retired after spending most of his 18 years in the majors with the Chicago White Sox, has died at the age of 88. Right-handed reliever Diego Moreno hit Abreu with a fastball to put two runners aboard for Cabrera, who launched his seventh homer of the season for a 6-1 lead.

Melky Cabrera and Alexei Ramirez homered and Danks struck out eight as the Chicago White Sox beat the New York Yankees 8-2 on Saturday night. The Yankees (58-44) lead the AL East by six games. After Eaton led off the first inning with a single, Abreu doubled him home with one out for the first run. Carroll is 1-1 with a 3.28 ERA in 12 relief appearances with the Sox.

TANNEN MAURY/EPA One-time Yankee Melky Cabrera burns his former team by hitting a three-run HR in the 5th.

“He’s been hot”, White Sox manager Robin Ventura said.

The White Sox (49-52) have lost two in a row after their season-high seven-game winning streak prompted them to avoid being sellers at the trade deadline. Ramirez made it 2-0 by hitting his homer in the second.

“We get in a tight spot at the end of the game and you need a lefty to come off the bench”, Ventura said. You’re going to run into more trouble than not.

More surprisingly, the Yankees did little against pedestrian lefthander John Danks (6-8), who allowed just one run on three hits and four walks over 5.2 innings. “I felt like the second, third and fourth innings I settled down a lot”.

The Yankees responded with a run in the top of the third after a leadoff double by catcher John Ryan Murphy and sacrifice fly by shortstop Didi Gregorious that was almost a home run were it not for a leaping catch at the wall by right fielder Avisail Garcia to preserve Chicago’s lead. “He just threw 70 pitches four days ago so I thought he did a decent job for us”. “He saved our bullpen”.

Yankees pitching prospect Luis Severino is scheduled to make his major league debut Wednesday against the Boston Red Sox.

Yankees RHP Ivan Nova (3-3, 3.38 ERA) is scheduled to start Sunday in the series finale against RHP Jeff Samardzija (8-5, 3.82).

Manager Joe Girardi said Danks’ control helped keep the Yankees off balance.

Yankees: RHP Nick Rumbelow was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and RHP Nick Goody was optioned to Triple-A before the game. Masahiro Tanaka will pitch Tuesday and CC Sabathia is scheduled to start Thursday, as long as the left-hander has recovered from the dehydration he experienced Thursday, Girardi said.

Girardi only has announced his rotation through the three games with the Red Sox next week in The Bronx.