White Sox hit walk-off homer against Berrios, Twins split doubleheader

CHICAGO – The Twins won a game they probably shouldn't have, then lost a game they had all but won.

Sure, baseball tends to even things out that way. But rarely is turnabout so abrupt or unexpected.

Jose Berrios appeared to be coasting to victory Monday, having given up only two hits, though both were home runs, over six innings when he went out to finish out a doubleheader sweep in the seventh. But a single, a hit batter, and a 3-1 count to pinch hitter Gavin Sheets set up Berrios for the mistake of his season: A fastball that the rookie could turn on. Sheets rocketed it over the Minnesota bullpen, and the Twins, 3-2 winners in Game 1, trudged off the field with a 5-3 loss.

"A fastball got away from him. But he's pitched his way out of spots like that many times before," manager Rocco Baldelli said after the Twins dropped to 2-8 in shortened games this year. "We gave him the opportunity to do it, and I would again."

It's the first time Berrios has given up three home runs in a game since April 20, 2019, in Baltimore, 58 starts ago. "I tried to be too fine, too perfect. They didn't chase much. They made great adjustments against me," he said. "It's hard. Frustrating."

Just like the White Sox were frustrated in Game 1, when Gilberto Celestino committed a rookie mistake at the worst possible time — during a tie game in extra innings — that could have sent the Twins to defeat. Instead, he extricated himself from a rundown of his own making, extended the inning and the Twins took advantage to beat first-place Chicago for just the third time this season.

"Different plays play out in funky ways sometimes," Baldelli said. "Sometimes things just work out, and honestly, we'll take it."

Game 1: Twins 3, White Sox 2 (8 innings)

Game 2: White Sox 5, Twins 3

With nobody out in the eighth inning of a scheduled seven-inning makeup game, Celestino was standing on third base when Josh Donaldson hit a chopper to another rookie, White Sox third baseman Jake Burger. Celestino broke for the plate, then realized his mistake and stopped about a 25 feet down the line. Burger ran towards him, then made a mistake of his own: Rather than making the tag himself, he suddenly flipped the ball to shortstop Tim Anderson, who arrived too late and collided with umpire Chris Guccione.

Trevor Larnach struck out and Nelson Cruz flew out to center field, and had Celestino been tagged out, the inning would have ended without a run. Instead, Cruz's fly ball allowed the rookie to tag up and score. And when Jorge Polanco followed with a single, Luis Arraez was able to slide across the plate a split-second ahead of catcher Zack Collins' tag to deliver an insurance run — that turned out to be critical.

That's because Jose Abreu crushed a Hansel Robles fastball to the warning track in center in the bottom of the inning, a double that scored Anderson with Chicago's second run. But Robles struck out Sheets and Adam Engel to finish off the victory, ending their three-game losing streak.

"Good ballgame. We played hard," Baldelli said of the victory, which began with one run over four strong innings by Griffin Jax. "Our bullpen came up huge for us, and late in the game we made some good things happen."

But some bad things happened in Game 2, which among other things, spoiled Mitch Garver's triumphant return from the injured list. The veteran catcher, who missed seven weeks after surgery to undo the damage of a foul ball to his groin, hit long home runs in each of his first two at-bats.

"Before the game, I was a wreck. … Like Tom Petty said, the waiting is the hardest part," Garver said. "Once we got into the actual game, things cooled off pretty good, and then it was just baseball."

Yep. But sometimes, especially during this Twins' season, that's the problem.