After a blowout loss Monday and a thrilling walk-off victory Tuesday, the Twins were due for a quick finale to their series Wednesday against the White Sox at Target Field.
Lucas Giolito shuts down Twins as White Sox win 2-1
Nelson Cruz's homer the only offense for a team baffled by Lucas Giolito.
May 20, 2021 at 3:08AM
And Lucas Giolito made sure of that.
The Chicago righthander's eight innings, 11 strikeouts and mystifying changeup stumped the Twins 2-1 in a 2-hour, 35-minute defeat. The Twins didn't have long to dwell on that confounding pitch, what with the team charter already warming on the runway to take them to California for Thursday's makeup doubleheader against the Angels.
Giolito (3-4) began the day with a 4.97 ERA, but the 2019 All-Star successfully cycled through his fastball and slider in front of an announced crowd of 8,608, only to fool hitters with his changeup at the end. Nelson Cruz had both Twins hits, including a third-inning homer to put his team up 1-0.
"He's got the unusual arm action," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of Giolito. "That cartoonish kind of changeup action that he has that the ball does not appear like it's going to end up where it ends up and really backs up on the hitters.
"On days when he has that pitch, you probably are going to end up attacking the other pitches and trying to find a way to do damage."
While Baldelli said this strategy from Giolito isn't new, his players still couldn't quite jump on early pitches. Only Cruz had success, lining a fastball just over the center field fence.
"I was lucky it didn't hit the wall," as Cruz said, adding Giolito kept the Twins off-balance all game.
The White Sox scraped together single runs in the fifth and sixth off Matt Shoemaker (2-5). Leury Garcia doubled in the fifth and scored on Adam Eaton's infield single to tie the score, and Garcia singled home Jake Lamb, who had doubled, the next inning for a 2-1 Chicago lead.
The Twins did have another opportunity for back-to-back walk-off victories against White Sox closer Liam Hendriks, heading into the ninth down one run. But this time Hendriks threw a quick 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts to secure Chicago's fifth victory in six games against his old team.
In the Twins' ninth game of 17 in a 16-day stretch, Shoemaker grinded out six innings, giving up five hits. Alexander Colome, Caleb Thielbar and Jorge Alcala each pitched a perfect inning of relief.
"The fact that our bullpen guys are able to go out there and get through innings very quickly, that is good. Because we do know that we have a lot of games still to come," Baldelli said. "We're going to need some of these guys to come back [Thursday] and pitch again, in the two games that we have, so them being able to get through their innings very efficiently allows us to plan ahead and get ready for the two games coming up."
Players said the pervasive feeling in the clubhouse is that this 14-27 team is nearing a turnaround, despite falling 11½ games behind AL Central-leading Chicago. Cruz said even as recently as Sunday's 7-6 loss to Oakland, he felt the team was in its 2019 form.
"We've been playing better baseball, even if it doesn't show on the wins and losses," he said. "… It shows life. We're really getting going with the stuff."
Shoemaker said in chatting with teammates, he was reminded how mentally everyone is on the same positive wavelength.
"We're in a fine spot," he said. "We know momentum is big, winning is contagious. As a team, we're so close to being really good. We're right there."
Gerrit Cole gave up his opt-out right on Monday and will remain with the New York Yankees under a contract that runs through 2028 rather than become a free agent.
