The White Sox seem determined to make baseball history in the worst way — as in, worst ever — because they could hardly ask for a better slump-buster than Sunday’s series finale with the Twins at Target Field. Chicago piled up a dozen hits, drew six walks, advanced runners into scoring position in eight of nine innings, and scored multiple runs against a trio of Twins pitchers.
Royce Lewis’ home run helps Twins win 13-7 over White Sox, who lose 20th in a row
The Twins finished off a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox, whose losing streak is one game away from the 1988 Orioles’ American League record.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
August 5, 2024 at 4:04AM
Yet for the 20th consecutive game, Chicago made enough mistakes, and especially enough bad pitches, to lose, this time 13-7 to the Twins, who swept the three-game weekend series and claimed the season series 12-1.
“It took a lot to get the win,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after his team avoided becoming the White Sox’s first victim since they beat the Twins in Chicago on July 10. “But we’re very happy to get the win.”
Minnesota moved to within 4½ games of first-place Cleveland in the American League Central, with four games against the Guardians here next weekend. The White Sox move on to Oakland, where they will try to avoid surpassing the 1988 Baltimore Orioles’ AL-record 21 straight losses, or tying the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies’ modern major league record of 23 in a row.
“I may be a little bit biased, but I felt like [White Sox hitters] had a good approach at the plate. They were hitting some balls hard. They scored some runs today,” said Cole Sands, who earned his fifth win of the season with two scoreless innings in relief of Simeon Woods Richardson. “We hit, too, maybe a little bit better. It’s baseball. You can’t predict it.”
The White Sox always seem to have a moment that makes viewers — in this case, the 28,302 on hand at Target Field — realize, “Oh, that’s why they’ll lose.” This time, it came in the first inning, after they left the bases loaded without scoring. With two out, White Sox starter Chris Flexen, now 2-11, walked Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis but got Max Kepler to hit a routine ground ball to Brooks Baldwin.
Instead of ending the inning, however, Chicago’s second baseman dropped the ball for an error, allowing Buxton to score from second base. Jose Miranda followed with a single to score Lewis, and Chicago suddenly found itself trailing 2-0 in what should have been a scoreless inning.
“Sometimes the ball bounces your way, sometimes it doesn’t. Today, we just got those rolls,” Lewis said. “Today was a good day, but it was just us playing good, consistent baseball.”
The Twins poured it on in the second inning, with a walk, two singles, two doubles, a triple and Lewis’ three-run, opposite-field home run producing six runs in all and an 8-0 lead.
“Usually when I hit it that way, it kind of tails off. But I was just glad it stayed fair. It was awesome,” Lewis said of the fourth home run of his career to right field. “We just had great at-bats, one after the other. We fed off each other.”
The Twins added two more in the seventh, courtesy of more poor Chicago play: three walks, a single, a bases-loaded passed ball and a sacrifice fly by Ryan Jeffers.
And the Twins finished up with their daily eighth-inning eruption, adding three more runs, one of which came on Christian Vázquez’s bases-loaded walk, two more via a double by Willi Castro. The Twins scored 12 eighth-inning runs in the three-game series and outscored Chicago 85-45 in the season series.
All of that offense made it easy for the Twins to shrug off, for the moment, a second straight short start by Woods Richardson, who allowed three runs in four innings and needed 89 pitches to do it. The White Sox also scored a pair of runs against Jorge Alcala on a home run by Andrew Benintendi and two more against Randy Dobnak on a pair of RBI doubles by Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn.
“We keep giving ourselves opportunities, which is what I always talk about. We had to bear down several times and find ways to finish innings, get guys home, all kinds of little things,” Baldelli said. “The guys had a ton of great at-bats, and if you see a lot of that, you’re going to score runs.”
On Monday’s Daily Delivery podcast, Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse joined host Michael Rand for a look back at a disastrous weekend for the Twins and a strong opening victory for the Vikings. They also talked about Kirk Cousins, the Lynx and Gophers.
