First and foremost, our hearts are with those who were involved in the tragedy that took place this morning in Highland Park, Illinois.
Coming off of a clean three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants the Sox returned home and opened a seven-game homestand this evening against the first-place Twins. This is a very critical stretch for the ball club, which plays fifteen straight against the AL Central. The Sox are looking to gain ground in the AL Central, and need every win possible to stay in the hunt for a third straight division crown.
Johnny Cueto gave the Sox all he could. He went six innings of two-run ball, his only mistake coming on the two-run homer to Byron Buxton. He recorded three punch-outs in his six innings of work – once again, he gives you all you can ask for in a fifth starter. Matt Foster came on for the seventh and did so without allowing a run. Fresh off the IL Liam Hendriks was asked to get the three biggest outs of the game at the time in the eighth inning with Carlos Correa, Max Kepler, and Jorge Polanco coming to the plate. Hendriks struck out the side, navigating flawlessly through 3-4-5 in the Twins lineup. Kendall Gravman sent it to the tenth where Joe Kelly took over. It all went haywire from there. Joe Kelly only recording two outs in the tenth , struggling with command the entire time. He walked two batters, and by the time it was all said and done, four runs had crossed the plate and the Twins were up 6-2.
Jose Abreu was majority of the offense today. Abreu led off the second with a long blast to right-field. Then in the seventh, he led it off with a double before coming around to score on a Yoan Moncada base hit. This was when the biggest blunder and momentum-changer of the game occurred. With A.J. Pollock up and no outs in the seventh with runners and first and second, Pollock hit a deep fly ball that took Twins centerfielder Byron Buxton to the track. Buxton would make a nice running play, but both baserunners – Adam Engel and Yoan Moncada – failed to tag up, turning a flyout into an inning-ending 8-5 triple play – the first of its kind in major league baseball history. The Sox would score one run in the tenth via an A.J. Pollock RBI single, but it was far from enough in a game that felt given away by the White Sox.
With the loss, the Sox move to 38-40. With their season on the line, time is ticking in these next fourteen games. The Sox need to really turn it on; if not, things will not be looking good.
W: Emilio Pagan (3-3) | L: Joe Kelly (0-2)
StatCast Breakdown
Box Score
Offensive Recap
Pitching Recap
White Sox Scoring Recap
Bottom 2nd: Jose Abreu homers to RF. 1-0 White Sox Sox
Bottom 7th: Yoan Moncada singles on a ground ball to LF, scoring Jose Abreu. 2-2 Tie
Bottom 10th: A.J. Pollock singles to CF, scoring Adam Engel. 6-3 Twins
Notable Performances
Johnny Cueto: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 3 K
Johnny Cueto once again worked into the sixth inning and gave the Sox all they can ask for. In eight out of his ten starts, Cueto has worked 6+ innings.
Jose Abreu: 2-for-4, HR, 1 RBI
Abreu once again doing all he could with a homer and a double. He scored two of the three runs today for the White Sox as he continues to heat up, becoming the first White Sox player to reach 10 homers this season.
Liam Hendriks: 1 IP, 3 K
Coming off of the IL, Liam was tasked with getting the middle of the Twins lineup out. He got the Twins’ 3-4-5 hitters all out on strikes.
Other Game Highlights
Next Matchup
The Sox will look to gain ground tomorrow night as they once again take on the Twins. Lance Lynn will go to the mound opposed by Chris Archer.
The game will start at 7:10 PM CT over on NBC Sports Chicago.
Follow us @SoxOn35th for more updates throughout the season!
Featured Image: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
The Sox went from a playoff team to a team that will be lucky to finish at .500. They can’t beat the Twins to save their life. Tough to watch, basically impossible at this point. At least the season is half over.
The triple play yesterday which may have well cost the Sox the game was a dire reflection on the incompetency of LaRussa and his staff. You rarely see that except only at the Little League/Pee Wee level when kids do not know they are expected to get back to the base. In 56 years of high school and college umpiring (still doing it at 78) I have only seen that occur a couple of times in more than 15,000 games. Reinsdorf is hurting the team and the fans by letting Tony remain.