CHICAGO — David Robertson wanted the pitch to Adam Dunn down and away so the powerful left-handed hitter couldn’t lift into the cool air that filled U.S. Cellular Field.
Instead the instant Robertson unleashed the ninth-inning, two-strike pitch he saw the fastball cut toward the barrel of Dunn’s bat and braced for the worst.
And when the ball landed in the right-field seats Roberson absorbed his first blown save of the year and the Yankees walked off the field 6-5 losers to the White Sox in front of an announced crowd of 27,091.
“Not where it ended up,’’ Robertson said when asked where he wanted the fateful pitch to Dunn. “I was trying for a fastball down and away and it was up in the zone. It cut right to the barrel.’’
Making Robertson’s first blown save in 10 chances hard to swallow was that he was ahead of leadoff hitter Dayan Viciedo, 0-2, and watched him whistle a breaking pitch to left leading off the ninth.
“It’s a tough one, I was ahead of two hitters, and it should have been two outs,’’ Robertson said. “I let us down today. I didn’t make enough quality pitches and cost us the game.’’
Robertson had company in that fraternity. Errors by first baseman Kelly Johnson and second baseman Brian Roberts led to two of the four runs given up by Hiroki Kuroda to being unearned.
“We made him work harder than he had to,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of Kuroda, who threw 100 pitches in 4²/₃ innings.
After Brian McCann’s three-run homer in the first inning off Hector Noesi the Yankees didn’t score again until the seventh on a wild pitch and Jacoby Ellsbury’s sacrifice fly.
Yangervis Solarte and Ichiro Suzuki opened the eighth with singles but didn’t score.
“Look at a lot of different things,’’ Girardi said of the Yankees’ eighth straight loss to the White Sox on the South Side. “We gave them two runs and we had chances to add on and didn’t.’’
Brought into the game with two outs in the eighth for what Girardi hoped would be a four-out save, Robertson walked Gordon Beckham on four pitches but fanned Conor Gillaspie to strand two runners.
As for Kuroda, he was bitten by the home run ball in the fifth when Alexei Ramirez hit a first pitch to left after Kuroda walked Dunn.
“I was doing OK until the homer in the fifth,’’ Kuroda said. “I thought I was not as sharp.’’
Derek Jeter, who went 2-for-4 and walked, predicted Friday night wouldn’t be the last time Robertson’s blows a save.
“It’s tough game, but our bullpen has been good all year,’’ Jeter said. “David has been perfect. Those things happen, and it will happen again at some point. We had a chance to win but give them credit.’’
McCann had the best view of the pitch to Dunn that never got past the bat.
“It was one of those that just cut out of his hand,’’ McCann said. “It’s baseball and it’s going to happen. It wasn’t our day.’’
Of course it’s going to happen. Even Mariano Rivera, the best closer ever, flushed saves in every possible way.