The idea of a White Sox bullpen game is as fraught a concept as making the entire plane out of the part that failed, but it was only a matter of time before the equally shaky Minnesota relief corps sprung a leak, and the Sox offense found a way to turn the tables before the 27th out.
Brooks Baldwin and Mike Tauchman strung together back-to-back RBI doubles with two outs in the eighth to turn a 5-4 deficit into a 6-5 lead, and Jordan Leasure recorded the final four outs for his fifth save, which is good enough for sole possession of the team lead.
While Justin Topa took the loss when a couple of meatballs rattled off the Target Field's big wall in right, some poor defense set him up. He gave up a single to Curtis Mead, who was replaced by Michael A. Taylor in the first of so many substitutions in the inning. After Andrew Benintendi lined out, Chase Meidroth hit a chopper to the right side. To the extent that Taylor's speed upgrade made a difference, it might've forced shortstop Brooks Lee to rush the throw after Kody Clemens started the attempt at a 3-6-1 double play, for Lee's throw to first was well behind the covering Topa.
Meidroth, who appeared to twist an ankle in his previous at-bat while stepping on first base because he was following the fate of a contact play at home, took second, where he was replaced by Bryan Ramos. That speed upgrade wasn't needed, because Topa hung a changeup to Baldwin on his first pitch, and Baldwin scorched it off the wall for a double that tied the game at 5. Tauchman had to wait a little longer for his cookie, but a 2-1 changeup found the middle of the plate, and Tauchman stuck it at the base of the wall right of center to help the Sox regain the lead.
Leasure made sure it stuck. He took over for Tyler Alexander with two outs and nobody on in the eighth when Byron Buxton turned over the lineup, retired Buxton on one pitch to end the inning, then handled the ninth without issue.
The ending was just about the only orderly part of the game, although Fraser Ellard would've been able to complete two scoreless innings with a 3-0 lead had Curtis Mead kept his glove down on Royce Lewis' bouncer. Instead, Ellard walked the next two batters he faced, and Wikelman González started his portion of the game with a run-scoring walk to Buxton. González struck out Ryan Jeffers to leave them loaded, but everything felt varying degrees of dicey from there on out in all phases of the game.
The White Sox offense took a 3-0 lead in the second inning with a couple of homers off Bailey Ober -- a solo shot by Colson Montgomery (not surprising), then a two-run shot by Meidroth (kinda surprising), but opportunities for lead-padding went by the boards. They were able to restore a two-run lead when Baldwin's line drive managed to escape the clutches of a diving Buxton in center, and Tauchman followed that double with a broken-bat single to make it 4-2, but a golden opportunity to put the game away in the sixth evaporated.
Montgomery and Mead opened with singles that put runners on the corners, but Montgomery didn't test Buxton's arm on Andrew Benintendi's lineout to center, and then was cut down at the plate on the contact play that somehow jeopardized Meidroth's health. Baldwin then struck out, and that set the stage for a Twins surge.
Buxton had created a run out of thin air in the fourth when he doubled off Cam Booser with two outs, advanced to third on a very wild pitch that hit the limestone backstop, then scored when Kyle Teel made an ill-advised decision to throw to third, and fired well high and wide.
While the Sox answered that run, they didn't have an immediate retort for the Twins' next scoring inning, which tied the game. Brandon Eisert pitched a scoreless fifth by starting a 1-6-3 double play, but the sixth started with a Royce Lewis homer that made it a 4-3 game, and Julien put the tying run into scoring position with a double, with DaShawn Keirsey Jr. replacing him. James Outman did the Sox a favor by popping out on a bunt, with Mead hitting the turf to secure the catch, but Steven Wilson entered the game and forgot about the runner he inherited. Keirsey stole third, then scored on Buxton's sac fly to tie the game at 4.
After Montgomery struck out with runners on the corners and two outs to end the top of the seventh, Matt Wallner opened the bottom of the inning by foiling the shift for a double off Tyler Alexander. Alexander nearly got out of the inning unscathed, but Brooks Lee pounded a 1-0 fastball through the left side to score Wallner for the first Minnesota lead of the game. Thanks to the teamwork from Baldwin and Tauchman, it didn't last.
Bullet points:
*The total line from the bullpen game: 9 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 9 K, 1 HR. They've seen worse.
*Half of the White Sox's 12 hits went for extra bases.
*Mead had three hits, raising his White Sox line to .286/.333/.329.
*While it felt like Venable exhausted the bench, he still had Will Robertson and Korey Lee remaining, and he ended the game with a perfectly respectable defensive alignment.
*The White Sox have now separated themselves from the 1932 White Sox for the second-fewest wins in a season. Next up: The 1948 White Sox, who went 51-101-2.
