This game could've been so much simpler had the White Sox and Twins been willing to call it after five innings when hellacious storm clouds blew in. The White Sox led 2-0 at the time, Lucas Giolito would've had his 11th win, third complete game and second shutout, and everybody could've gone home hours earlier.
They instead stuck out a two-hour, 54-minute rain delay and forced the White Sox to earn it. At the end of it all, though, the White Sox won the series and Giolito heads into the second half of the season on pace for 22 wins.
Giolito rebounded nicely after a couple of mediocre outings against good offenses, reasserting himself against a Twins team had had beaten the White Sox by seven runs four different times this season. He allowed just a bounced single through the left side as his only hit, and a 12-pitch at-bat by Marwin Gonzalez was the only time he really had to work. For the second time this year, he worked a quick fifth inning as skies darkened, and Yoan Moncada's two-run homer -- off lefty Lewis Thorpe -- looked like all the White Sox would need.
Fortunately, the Sox tacked on a couple more runs by greeting Tyler Duffey with four straight hits to start the sixth. Moncada, Jose Abreu, James McCann and Jon Jay all singled to give the Sox a 4-0 lead ...
... which the Twins nearly obliterated the following inning. Having erased Byron Buxton from the basepaths with a 7-1-5 putout the previous inning, Marshall went to work on a second frame, only to give up a single to Jorge Polanco and yet another beefy blast to Nelson Cruz, cutting the Sox lead in half. Mitch Garver then hit a routine grounder to García, but he got under the ball and lofted his throw well wide of first. Garven eventually came aroudn to score on Aaron Bummer's watch courtesy of two more singles, but Bummer came back to strand the tying run at second with a pair of strikeouts.
After Bummer and Colomé teamed up for a 1-2-3 eighth, the latter pitcher had to work around yet another García error on a Garver grounder, as he backed up on a chopper and let it clank off the heel of his glove. Garver then reached second on a very wild pitch, still with nobody out. But Colomé had better luck with contact the rest of the way, getting a lineout to short, a flyout to center, and a groundout from Miguel Sanó to end the game.
Bullet points:
*Giolito's line: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K on 68 pitches. The contact he allowed averaged just 81 mph, compared to 94 for Marshall and 95 for Bummer.
*The White Sox finished a brutal stretch against potential postseason teams with a 7-8 record, which isn't bad. It's also fitting, because through 81 games they're on pace for 78 wins.
*Jose Rondón was thrown out at third on a brilliant throw by right fielder Ehire Adrianza to end the second. It was a highlight-reel play, but also a bad decision given how shallow Adrianza was playing Yolmer Sánchez the opposite way.
*Eloy Jiménez and Ryan Cordell both made a couple of nice running catches in gaps.
Record: 39-42 | Box score | Highlights
