If you could ignore the 3rd inning, then Lance Lynn and the White Sox would have had a tidy little win over the Twins Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, they're still counting all nine these days, so a couple of booming home runs off the bats off Carlos Correa and Jorge Polanco were enough to win it for Minnesota and put a damper on the Sox Machine / #108ing road trip to Target Field.
Lynn only gave up seven baserunners in 5 innings, but six of them came around to score on the Twins' three big hits. A leadoff homer by Luis Arraez put Minnesota up 1-0 in the first. Lynn recovered to retire seven of the next nine hitters, but with Gary Sanchez on first base and one out in the third, Carlos Correa blasted a hanging slider 421 feet to make it a three-run lead.
Back-to-back singles from Byron Buxton and Max Kepler put two more runners aboard, and led to a mound visit from Ethan Katz. Whatever Katz said didn't work, because Jorge Polanco bludgeoned a first pitch fastball on the outside corner just over the extra-high wall in rightfield to make it 6-0.
On the other side, despite Dylan Bundy's generally weak season, the Sox's best offensive opportunities came mostly thanks to do shoddy defense from Minnesota. They scratched a run across in the 4th, when Yoan Moncada beat out an infield single to the third base side. Moncada advanced to second on a passed ball, then to third when Andrew Vaughn's flyball to the wall popped out of Kepler's glove. Jose Abreu knocked in Moncada with a groundout, but Gavin Sheets popped up to strand Vaughn at third.
The story was similar in the 6th. Tim Anderson hit a single off Gio Urshela's glove, then Moncada hit a bloop double into no man's land behind Urshela, giving the Sox another opportunity with runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out. This time, Vaughn smoked a single down the first base line, scoring both Anderson and Moncada. Jose Abreu walked to keep the line moving, but Sheets grounded out and AJ Pollock lined out to keep it 6-3 Twins.
The Sox had another chance to make some noise in the 8th. Moncada and Abreu sandwiched singles around a Vaughn strikeout, but this time Sheets struck out while Pollock again lined out. It was a tough day for the middle of the order... Lineup spots 9 through 4 (Engel, Anderson, Moncada, Vaughn, Abreu) combined to go 9 for 19 with two doubles, two BBs, and two Ks; spots 5 through 8 (Sheets, Pollock, Harrison, Zavala) went 0 for 16 with 5 K's and a GIDP.
On the plus side, it looks like that didn't stop the Sox fans in attendance from having a grand ol' time.
