Mistakes by Brooks Baldwin and Michael A. Taylor put the White Sox behind in the first.
Clutch hits by Brooks Baldwin and Michael A. Taylor put the White Sox ahead with two outs in the ninth.
Baldwin's broken-bat single kept the game alive and put the tying run on base, and Taylor's chalk-dotting double to the left-field corner gave the Sox their first lead of the game when they were down to their final strike. Jordan Leasure then endured some drama to lock down his sixth save of the season.
The White Sox had lost 205 straight games when trailing after eight. Instead, they picked up their fourth-straight win, they've secured the season series against the Twins, and they have a chance for a four-game sweep at Target Field Thursday night.
Twins pitching had largely subdued the White Sox, holding them to three hits and two walks over the first eight innings. Edgar Quero accounted for the only run with a second-inning solo shot off Zebby Matthews, and he's the one who started the ninth-inning rally with a one-out single.
Will Venable replaced him with Korey Lee, but he made no other substitutions despite many natural opportunities. Andrew Benintendi followed Quero by facing the left-handed Kody Funderburk, and ended up drawing a seven-pitch walk, his first against a southpaw this season.
With Curtis Mead coming to the plate and the three-batter minimum met, Rocco Baldelli called for the right-handed Justin Topa, who was last seen losing the one-run lead in the eighth inning on Monday. Venable could have pinch-hit with Mike Tauchman or Will Robertson, but left Mead in there to strike out, and the Sox were down to their last bullet.
Baldwin followed, and after hitting the game-tying double off Topa on Monday, he was able to foil Topa even with less authoritative contact. He got sawed off on a 3-1 cutter just inside, but was able to muscle a bloop single into shallow right field. Lee scored, and Benintendi advanced to third, which turned out to be a critical 90 feet.
Then it was Taylor's turn. He hit for himself, even though he was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, and Tauchman and Robertson were available. The indecision appeared regrettable when Taylor chased a sweeper well outside for strike one, then swung over another sweeper away for strike two. But he was able to recalibrate the zone when Topa missed well wide with his next two breaking balls, and Baldwin was able to take second uncontested on the latter one.
That put the go-ahead run into scoring position, and Taylor capitalized. Topa's fifth sweeper dangled on the inner third, and Taylor sizzled a 114.5 mph laser that marked the outside corner of the left-field line. Both runners scored, and the White Sox led 4-3.
Leasure immediately jeopardized that lead by allowing a leadoff double to Buxton in the bottom of the ninth, and Larnach walked to put the go-ahead run aboard. They advanced no further. Luke Keaschall and Ryan Jeffers both flied out to left, and Brooks Lee hit a routine grounder to third. Mead babied his throw across the diamond, but Lenyn Sosa scooped it to preserve the final out.
It was a stunning turn of events, both because the White Sox had trailed from the jump, and Taylor and Baldwin were culpable. Larnach reached on a one-out single to center that Taylor didn't read. A direct route in probably results in a catch standing up, but Taylor broke straight to his right and generously rounded off a base hit, which turned into one run when Keaschall roped a double to left.
Wallner then lined a single to right, and while Keaschall intended to stop at third, Baldwin fumbled the exchange, and Keaschall scored on the error.
Gómez did a fine job hunkering down thereafter, holding the Twins scoreless over the next four innings despite a couple of legit threats. In the fourth, he had the bases loaded with two outs and fell behind Austin Martin 2-0, but got him to ground into a 6-4 fielder's choice to leave them loaded.
In the fifth, he dealt with another Baldwin misplay when Buxton hit a drive to deep right field. Baldwin turned around to play the ball off the wall, but it actually bounced on the warning track first. Buxton wasn't thinking triple out of the box, but because the carom didn't have nearly the distance Baldwin had granted it, he was able to get to third without issue.
Yet Buxton couldn't get home. Gómez first got Larnach to ground out directly to a drawn-in Chase Meidroth at second, and then he induced a half-swing from Keaschall on a full-count slider that produced the equivalent of a firm bunt toward the pitcher, and Gómez shoveled it home to Quero, who easily applied the tag on a diving Buxton to thwart the contact play.
The Twins eventually did score a third run, but it was on Mike Vasil's watch, and in a far more straightforward fashion. Jeffers reached on a leadoff single, advanced to second on a grounder that Lenyn Sosa smothered at first, and then scored on Royce Lewis' solid single through the left side. It was insurance at the time, but it turns out the policy was lacking.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox are now 12-30 in one-run games.
*There haven't been many nights where Vasil was the weak link in the bullpen. Bradon Eisert, Grant Taylor and Leasure combined for three scoreless innings afterward, with Taylor picking up his first winning decision after four defeats.
*The White Sox now have to go 11-11 to finish with fewer than 100 losses.
*The win probability chart:
*The Whtie Sox have now scored 558 runs, meaning Josh officially lost his steak dinner bet.
