It took nine tries, but the White Sox finally beat the Minnesota Twins, and Michael Kopech put a helluva stamp on it.
Kopech struck out the side on nine pitches for the second immaculate inning in White Sox history, joining Sloppy Thurston, who accomplished the feat 100 years ago. Kopech, who just two outings ago appeared ill-suited for closing because he only trusted his fastball, never threw more than two four-seamers in a row, and the increased cutter usage played up to maximum effect.
Brooks Lee? Fouled off a fastball up and away, a backdoor cutter, and a 100-mph fastball at the top of the zone for strike three looking.
Matt Wallner? Swung through a fastball that tailed off the plate, fouled off a hanging cutter, then couldn't check his swing on another fastball and rode up and out of the zone.
Max Kepler? Swung over a perfect cutter that darted out of the zone down and in, watched a perfect backdoor cutter, then couldn't hold up on a fastball that ran just off the plate.
It was an immensely satisfying ending to a fine effort, albeit a low-scoring one. Erick Fedde front-loaded the drama by escaping a bases-loaded jam in the first before settling in, and Luis Robert Jr. provided the breathing room with a no-doubt homer off Bailey Ober.
The Twins missed the opportunity to demoralize the White Sox for 18 innings, and spent the rest of the day ruing it. They had the bases loaded with nobody out on 24 pitches after Willi Castro walked on six pitches, Carlos Correa singled on the 11th pitch of his at-bat, and Trevor Larnach worked a walk on seven.
Fedde then fell behind Jose Miranda 3-1 with nowhere to put him ... and apparently, he had the Twins right where he wanted them. Miranda's flyout to center was too shallow for Castro to test Robert, and then Carlos Santana happened to be at the plate when Fedde figured out his cutter location, striking him out.
One more cutter shattered Brooks Lee's bat, which slowed the grounder to short, but Lenyn Sosa barely beat Larnach and Nicky Lopez's throw to second base for the final out. The only toll of the inning was 35 pitches, which limited Fedde to five innings, even if they were scoreless.
The White Sox had their typical struggles against Bailey Ober, but were eventually able to break through. They put runners on the corners with nobody out after Gavin Sheets doubled and Eloy Jiménez singled to start the fifth, and while Paul DeJong's flyout to left accounted for the only run, it was still better than the Twins fared with their golden opportunity.
An inning later, Andrew Vaughn kept the Sox alive with a two-out double that bounced over the left-center wall, and then Robert cleared it on the fly by smoking a 90-mph first-pitch fastball 109 mph in the opposite direction. The White Sox led 3-0, and while Jordan Leasure immediately invited some bad vibes by giving up a solo shot (again to Matt Wallner) with a three-run lead in the seventh, that was the only damage the bullpen suffered, and Leasure had the right mind to make sure nobody was on base.
Bullet points:
*Fedde improved to 7-3 for a team that's 27-67, which is something.
*John Brebbia struck out two in a scoreless eighth, pitching around a Miranada squibber that would've been a 1-3 putout if Korey Lee didn't bump Brebbia as he tried to throw to first.
*The White Sox went 2-for-3 with a sac fly with runners in scoring position. The Twins were 0-for-3, and all of those opportunities came in the first inning.
*Thurston's immaculate inning was against the Philadelphia Athletics on Aug. 22, 1923. I'll write about it more tomorrow.
