The White Sox lost yet another game to the Minnesota Twins, and yet another game by one run, and that one-run difference manifested itself in so many different ways.
Michael Kopech started the ninth by walking Byron Buxton, and while it was a six-pitch walk, none of the four pitches he missed with were close. Buxton eventually came around to score by going first to third on Manuel Margot's bounced single through the right side, and home on Max Kepler's sac fly for the deciding run, handing Kopech the loss on his 28th birthday.
An inning before, Andrew Benintendi made another hopeless decision to throw home on a single. While the urge was understandable -- Carlos Correa's single to left with two outs scored Margot to tie the game at 4 -- airmailing the cutoff man allowed Correa to advance to second base, after which he scored on Trevor Larnach's single to give Minnesota a 5-4 lead.
Two innings before that, the Twins had Max Kepler on first and Ryan Jeffers on third with one out. Kepler broke for second on Dominic Leone's full-count changeup, which struck out Trevor Larnach. Martín Maldonado threw through, and Paul DeJong committed to the late tag -- during which he dropped the ball -- instead of paying attention to Jeffers at third, and Jeffers trotted home without a throw (or out) to make it a 4-3 game.
An inning before that, DeJong threw home on Willi Castro's drive to left-center that dropped outside of Tommy Pham's diving attempt (the problem with a Benintendi-Pham-Gavin Sheets outfield alignment). Castro had already decided on taking third on Benintendi's arm, but DeJong might've had a chance if he tried going there, but while Danny Mendick had his arms outstretched, the throw went elsewhere. Castro ended up scoring on Kyle Farmer's double, and a 2-0 lead evaporated shortly after Michael Soroka had given up his first hit.
But that's not all: The White Sox also hemorrhaged opportunities to add a run on offense.
The Sox notched seven hits against Simeon Woods Richardson over 3⅔ innings, but only scored two runs. They stranded a pair of inning-opening singles in the second, but that's normal baseball misfortune.
In the third, Eddie Rodriguez tried sending Martín Maldonado home with one out on Pham's double to center. An imperfect relay cut down Maldonado, although it took a review to overturn the safe call (Maldonado seemed to know he was out from his reaction). When Eloy Jiménez followed with a single to center, it only scored one run.
In the eighth, Benintendi managed to atone for his poor decision throwing home in the top of the inning with a leadoff solo shot off Cole Sands that tied the game at 5. Danny Mendick followed with a double, but Mendick didn't advance. Pinch-hitting Robbie Grossman struck out, pinch-hitting Korey Lee -- who was pinch-hitting for pinch-hitting Rafael Ortega after a pitching change -- popped out on the first pitch, and Nicky Lopez grounded out on the first pitch he saw to strand the potential go-ahead run as quickly as possible.
That allowed the Twins to bring in freshly rehabbed closer Jhoan Duran for the save, and while Pham posted a threat with a single up the middle, Jiménez and Sheets grounded into fielder's choices,. and Vaughn struck out to end the game.
The mess of failures overshadowed some positive developments, like two homers from unexpected sources Benintendi and Mendick, who went deep in the fifth after the Twins tied the game at 2. Pham had two more hits in his return to the lineup and reached on an error, and Soroka retired the first 10 he faced before the Twins started hitting the ball harder. But for a team that hoped to play FAST and make up as much of the talent deficit on the margins, this game put their worst foot forward.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox are now 0-6 against the Twins, who have won nine in a row.
*The White Sox went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, while the Twins were 6-for-13.
*Maldonado cut down his first runner of the season, and it ended Buxton's streak of 20 consecutive stolen bases.
*Prelander Berroa made his White Sox debut and plunked the first hitter he faced to load the bases with two outs, but got a grounder to third to leave three aboard.
*The White Sox bullpen allowed 11 baserunners over 4⅔ innings, including three HBPs by three different pitchers.
*Pham ran through second base on an inning-ending fielder's choice in the fourth that offended Edouard Julien and confused John Schriffen and Steve Stone. This is the reason Pham didn't slide.
*The box score says the White Sox played errorless ball.
