This metaphor is probably only one that only the older siblings will understand but here goes: You know when you’re playing Mario Kart with your sibling and for one reason or another you try to let them win to make them feel better? Well that is exactly what happened on Friday night between the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins. The only difference was that both teams appeared to want to lose.
Anytime Luis Castillo takes the mound it’s best to protect your mental health and be willing to channel
surf. Enjoying life without a three-hour block of straight Sox is a much better alternative than feeling the veins in your neck bulging while Castillo “pitches.”
Friday night felt different out the gates, as the South Siders put up a four-spot in the very first inning. Surely with that kind of buffer, Castillo couldn’t completely hand it back, right? Unfortunately, I set the bar low for Castillo in the game thread, and somehow he still found a way to limbo right under it.
Gifted a massive lead, he immediately gave up three runs in the first before the Twins tied it in the second. It was a weird night for Castillo, where the meatballs he threw went largely unpunished while his few actual decent pitches were taken for rides.
Luckily, for the White Sox, Dean Kremer is also bad at baseball, and it almost looked like he realized that the Twins are essentially out of the playoff race and should be tanking at this point. Two doubles from the White Sox in the third gave the Sox the lead back, 5-4; Chicago had its first two batters reach in the fourth before the White Sox also remembered for whatever reason they did not want to win, and immediately grounded into a double play.
It was at that time Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers saw the White Sox slamming on the brakes and responded by driving right into the path of his own green shell by letting a wild pitch get by, allowing Tristan Peters to score and give Chicago a two-run pad. Unfortunately for the few fans that the Twins have left, Jeffers would allow the same thing to happen again later in the game, allowing a crucial insurance run to score.
It was still anybody’s game with Castillo still “pitching,” but he was able to gather himself enough to keep the lead intact. Still, using 75 pitches to get through four innings meant the White Sox bullpen was going to be taxed heavy in the game — and that’s only slightly better than having Castillo out there.
Luckily, the bullpen went out and took care of business. A ton of credit goes out to Grant Taylor, who was absolutely lights-out in 2 ⅔ innings of high-leverage work. Will Venable asked a lot of him, and Taylor Grant-ed a win and a sigh of relief.
Because the White Sox are the White Sox, they had to put themselves in harm’s way in the ninth inning, only for the Twins to squander the opportunity like they’ve squandered everything good they’ve had since the late 90’s.
The Twins were shut out over the last seven innings of the game, although it didn’t seem like it with the amount of base runners they put on the base paths. Fortunately for the South Siders, Minnesota went just 1-for-11 with RISP, grounded into two double plays, and stranded eight base runners.
Thanks to horrible pitching and an insane amount of delays, the game that was hard to watch from the bottom of the first inning was finally decided after three hours. It was the odd game where a win feels like a loss, but no matter how it may feel, the White Sox gained an important game on the Guardians. The Sox pushed themselves to a three and a half game lead. The magic number is down to 25, and that’s all that matters.
MVP
Grant Taylor: 2 2/3 IP, H, 3 Ks
Runners-Up
Colson Montgomery: 2-for-4, 3 RBIs, R, 2 Ks
Andrew Benintendi: 2-for-4, 2 RBIs, R
Ryan Jeffers: 2 runs allowed on wild pitches to help put the game away, 0-for-5, 2 Ks
Cold Cat
Luis Castillo: 4 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, BB, K
Runners-Up
Sam Antonacci: 0-for-4, BB, SB
Tristan Peters: 1-for-4, R, K
