CHICAGO — The Yankees could not control how soft their schedule became over the past week, but they did take care of business almost as well as they could have.
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Just as the competition is about to get turned up over a two-week gantlet, the Yankees missed a chance to finish off a perfect week, falling to the White Sox 3-2 at Rate Field on Sunday afternoon to snap a seven-game winning streak.
Lefty Tim Hill allowed a go-ahead home run to the right-handed hitting Lenyn Sosa in the bottom of the eighth inning, breaking a 2-2 tie on a day when the Yankees could not get much going offensively.
The Blue Jays beat the Brewers on Sunday, so the Yankees (76-61) dropped to three games back of Toronto in the AL East, while having their lead trimmed to a half-game over the Red Sox for the top AL wild-card spot.
The Yankees will have Monday off in Houston before beginning a three-game showdown Tuesday, which will be followed by series against fellow playoff contenders in the Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox.
Aaron Judge finished a triple short of the cycle, including his 43rd home run of the year, but flied out with the tying run on first in the ninth inning.
Luis Gil was solid, if not spectacular, while giving up two runs across 5 ¹/₃ innings.
The right-hander has not completed six innings in any of his six starts this season.
For the second straight day, Judge put the Yankees ahead 1-0 with a home run.
This one came in the first against veteran lefty Martín Pérez, who left an 0-2 cutter down the middle that Judge crushed 426 feet.
The solo blast pulled Judge into a tie with Yogi Berra for fifth place on the all-time Yankees home run list with 358.
Joe DiMaggio is up next at 361.
The three-hit day was an encouraging sign for Judge, who entered Sunday batting .218 in 23 games since coming off the IL for an elbow flexor strain.
Gil, whose velocity was down early — perhaps in an attempt to improve his command, as he did in his prior start — gave up back-to-back doubles in the second inning that allowed the White Sox to tie the game.
But the Yankees responded with back-to-back doubles of their own in the third to regain the lead.
Judge came within a few feet of his second home run before settling for a double off the center field wall and Cody Bellinger drove him in with a two-bagger that made it 2-1.
Giancarlo Stanton nearly padded the lead later in the inning, but ex-Yankee Mike Tauchman jumped and reached over the right field wall to rob him of a two-run homer.
Gil had retired 10 straight into the sixth inning before throwing a slider on the outside corner to Colson Montgomery, who drilled it to center for a solo shot that tied the game at 2-2.
Gil walked the next batter on four pitches — both of his free passes on Sunday were four-pitch walks — ending his outing.
He was relieved by Fernando Cruz, who got Curtis Mead to ground into an inning-ending double play.