We like to make fun of the way Tony La Russa's position-player substitutions backfire, but I don't know if anybody can top the concept of Adam Engel entering the game as a pinch runner in the seventh inning and making two outs on the basepaths over three innings, the first of which was the front end -- or middle third -- of the first-ever 8-5 triple play in recorded Major League Baseball history.
It was the turning point of the game in the same sense that the Hastings Cutoff was the turning point for the Donner Party, and one has to hope that it doesn't take the rest of the season down with it.
The White Sox, after getting characteristically stymied by Dylan Bundy's ability to get ahead with breaking balls, finally figured out how to string together productive at-bats in Griffin Jax's second inning of work. With the Sox trailing 2-1 entering the bottom of the seventh, José Abreu brushed off an HBP that wasn't called and drilled a double to the left-center gap, while Gavin Sheets got plunked on the foot in a manner everybody saw. Yoán Moncada then followed by hitting how he was pitched, and taking a changeup through the vacated left side for a game-tying single.
That's when Adam Engel, fresh off the injured list, entered the game to run for Sheets. We've seen this kind of marginal substitution result in that player hitting for himself in high-leverage situations a number of times over La Russa's tenure, but even the most unpleasantly sarcastic Sox fan couldn't have envisioned the scenario that unfolded.
AJ Pollock continued the strong string of plate appearances with a deep drive to right center that chased Byron Buxton all the way to the track. Buxton, of course, flagged it down without leaving his feet on the warning track, and hurled the ball in the direction of the infield to attempt to slow the progress of at least one of the runners.
Little did he know that neither Engel nor Moncada saw Buxton catch the ball. Engel initially broke for second, then retreated to within five feet of second base, where he stood to watch the path of the ball. If he were standing on second, then breaking for third upon the arrival of the ball to Buxton's person would've been a perfectly acceptable course of action. But because he was standing off the base, every step put him farther away from the place he needed to be to avoid disaster.
Moncada didn't help matters. He had the play in front of him, and yet he didn't see Buxton catch the ball, so he rounded second on Engel's heels similar to the way Leury García forced Joe McEwing to wave Luis Robert home in that game against Cleveland.
Watching the play unfold in real time, watching Moncada get tagged out by Gio Urshela between third and second when he still needed to get all the way back to first made it look like he forgot how many outs there were. He was wrong and out in an obvious and obscene manner. But then when Urshela stepped on second for the play's third out, that's when viewers at home slowly realized that Engel messed up in an equally ugly sense, and the burgeoning threat of a crooked number was sucked out of the airlock and cast into space, never to return.
The explanation, if you care to hear it.
Adam Engel put the triple play on himself, saying he misread Buxton taking his eyes off the ball and looking for the wall as indication that the ball had landed at the fence, and that Yoán Moncada was probably reacting to him taking off for third and not tagging up.
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) July 5, 2022
Engel was thrown out trying to steal second after drawing a two-out walk in the ninth inning, so that was the second one. Joe Kelly started the 10th by giving up a Luis Arraez RBI single on the Manfred Man, but when followed by striking out Buxton, he almost had it set up to where Arraez's single helped the Sox more than it hurt. But then Kelly issued walks to Carlos Correa and Max Kepler, setting up a sac fly and a two-run single that gave the Twins a 6-2 lead.
The Sox were able to score their own Manfred Man (Engel survived that episode on the bases), on Pollock's one-out single, and a two-out base hit by Seby Zavala brought Tim Anderson to the plate as a tying run, but Anderson struck out on a pitch in the dirt and didn't even bother forcing Ryan Jeffers to make the throw.
All of those constituted failures as well, but the triple play condemned the game to a miserable outcome regardless of the score.
Bullet points:
*José Abreu scored the Sox's two runs in regulation, striking the only blow during Bundy's five innings with a solo shot to right field. The White Sox now have a 10-homer hitter.
*Johnny Cueto pitched another valuable six innings, but he couldn't avoid allowing a two-run shot to Buxton, who has homered off the White Sox in six straight games. He followed an Arraez double by crushing a hanging first-pitch slider well out to left center, which gave Minnesota that aforementioned 2-1 lead.
*Liam Hendriks' return from the injured list was more of a triumph than Engel's, because he struck out the side in the eighth. Kendall Graveman pitched a scoreless ninth.
*The Sox had some issues with fly balls. Zavala and Moncada collided on a pop-up to the left side in the first inning that Moncada called for, and Robert broke the wrong way on two fly balls that Arraez hit over his head left of center, including the double before Buxton's homer. The efforts are lacking.
*La Russa was ejected for arguing balls and strikes with David Rackley, whose zone was indeed terrible, but in a way that stumped both teams.
