If you chose to tune out from this game after the first two innings, you missed Luis Robert's first major-league home run.
It was a moonshot, so much so that it didn't look like a lock to leave the yard as Minnesota center fielder Jake Cave tracked it to the wall. But the angle at which he launched it (37 degrees) masked how hard he hit it (111.4 mph), and it ended up plopping a few rows deep into the bleachers just left of center.
The inaugural dinger accounted for the only two runs the White Sox scored all afternoon, and really the only good news, unless you like the idea of Adam Engel collecting three hits.
The bad news wasted no time establishing itself.
Reynaldo López came out underpowered, but retiring Max Kepler and Josh Donaldson on a pair of groundouts suggested he might've been easing into his afternoon.
Then he failed to retire any of the last six batters he faced. He issued a walk, gave up a double to Nelson Cruz, walked Eddie Rosario, then gave up a grand slam to Jake Cave for the second immediate 4-0 hole in three games. Luis Arraez recluttered the bases with a single, and by the time López ran a full count to Marwin Gonzalez, he had thrown just 19 of his 38 pitches for strikes.
He left that full count on the mound, departing the field with what the White Sox called right shoulder tightness. It made sense, because while López has sometimes displayed that kind of ineffectiveness, it's usually not with the kind of velocity he showed. His fastball topped out at 94.4 mph.
López's injury seems like it'll deal a blow to the White Sox rotation, but the bigger question is how much company he'll have around the league. Baseball's biggest news today is that Justin Verlander is done for the year after one start due to an elbow injury. Michael Kopech might've made the right call, even if his wife weren't pregnant.
Gio González finally made his White Sox debut 16 years after the White Sox drafted him, and got his fellow Gonzalez to swing over the top of a slider for the rare one-pitch strikeout to end the first. He probably could've called it quits there, but he ended up taking six runs' worth of lumps to get the game through five.
Cave's slam hurt López, but it literally injured Eloy Jiménez, who rattled himself against the left-field wall in the process of trying to track it. He stayed in the game temporarily, but departed an inning later when lightheadedness recurred as he chased a line drive to the gap. The White Sox trailed 9-0 after two, so it's a minor miracle that this game wasn't even uglier than a 12-run blowout.
Other details of the game worth logging, so we don't have to readily remember:
*Ross Detwiler threw two perfect innings in relief. Kelvin Herrera did not, allowing four runs on three hits, two of which left the yard. His time seems limited.
*Nelson Cruz had one of the homers. He had a cycle worth of total bases, with two homers, two doubles and seven RBIs.
*Engel came off the bench for Jiménez and collected half of the White Sox's hits. Yasmani Grandal reached base three times, with two walks and his first hit with the team. Robert's homer registers as the only other triumph from the lineup.
*Tim Anderson (0-for-5, two strikeouts) and Edwin Encarnación (0-for-4, three strikeouts) had particularly rough days. Anderson also bobbled Donaldson's first-inning grounder, but recovered in time to get the out after a successful challenge.
*Nicky Delmonico went 0-for-3 with a groundout and two popouts to the left side. He worked another really long at-bat, but those battles are a byproduct of an inability to put hittable pitches in play. Also, he overthrew two cutoff men.
*Cheslor Cuthbert replaced Delmonico as a pinch hitter in his White Sox debut and popped out to shortstop as well.
The good news? The White Sox are done with the end of August. And if Siberian slap-fight rules still apply to this season series, then it'll be the Twins' turn to take an open hand across the face. And if they don't apply, at least there are only seven games left.
