The offense came up short for the Good Guys, going 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position in a frustrating 5-3 extra-inning loss to the Twins on the South Side tonight. This game had all the emotions: annoyance that the bats couldn’t ignite, excitement from a game-tying homer, shock after the go-ahead run was thrown out at home, and then back to sadness in the 11th. You can almost feel them just from the win probability chart.
This loss ended Minnesota’s seven-game losing streak against the White
Sox, but there are still two more this week and another three next week against them to rebound and shut them down. It would have been nice, though, to pick up a game on the entire division as the Tigers, Royals, and Guardians all took an L Tuesday, but the South Siders remain 3 1/2 games back.
Sean Burke had a solid seven-inning, two-run start, but received absolutely zero run support from the offense. The righty was hot out of the gate, needing just eight pitches to get through the first and going hitless through three. The second inning got a bit dicey as Burke walked two batters, and though it took him 28 pitches — the most in an inning for his entire outing — he still worked out of the jam without any runs scoring.
Burke ended up with 100 pitches thrown with 65 strikes, with the two runs coming in the fourth after Trevor Larnach and Kody Clemons mashed a double and an RBI triple, respectively, for Minnesota’s first run of the game, 1-0. Austin Martin followed that up with an RBI single for Burke’s only other run allowed for the Twins to take a two-run lead, and even with the two tallies, Burke was otherwise efficient and got out of the inning with just 13 pitches.
Though he wouldn’t end up on the hook for the win, Burke gave up just three hits, walked two, and struck out eight. Recording 10 swing and misses, he averaged a 30% called strike plus whiff rate (CSW%), using his fastball the most at a 36% CSW — the highest of all of his pitches — peaking at 97.4 mph and producing the weakest average opponent exit velocity (85.9 mph). On the bright side, he brought his ERA back below 4.00 (3.90), so it was definitely progress and good to see him looking more like he did at the start of the season.
On the other end, righthander Joe Ryan was essentially mowing down White Sox hitters left and right and racked up nine Ks in his 7 2/3 frames. Through seven, Ryan was practically unhittable for the South Siders and had only given up three hits until the eighth. With 14 swing and misses, he posted a 37% CSW% with his knuckle-curve and sweeper getting the best of the Good Guys, accumulating 42% and 43% called strike plus whiff rates. In other words, the White Sox couldn’t touch the ball to save their lives for seven innings.
Until Munetaka Murakami saved the entire game for the South Siders, they had plenty of chances to score runs before the eighth. It doesn’t help when your DH (Andrew Benintendi) comes up with runners in a prime spot, and he just grounds out to second, which is exactly what happened in the fourth after Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth strung consecutive base hits together. Sure, he had two hard hits, but we must get better production from that spot.
Another foiled chance for the South Siders came in the seventh when Benny hit a two-out single, Tristan Peters was (maybe?) hit by a pitch, but Drew Romo struck out on three straight pitches to end the threat and the inning. I’m sure that the Twins regretted not ending Joe Ryan’s day after seven, but in their defense, he was cruising through his entire outing. Rikuu Nishida poked his second career hit out to left to start the bottom of the eighth, flipping it back to the core of the White Sox lineup. Sam Antonacci ended up striking out, but Murkami sent a game-tying tank over the right-field fence for his 19th of the season. It was beautiful.
Once Burke was replaced, the bullpen was a big reason that the Good Guys were able to hang in the game. Lefthander Sean Newcomb handled the eighth and ninth innings almost flawlessly, allowing just one hit while striking out two, including a clutch inning-ending K against Byron Buxton in the eighth after Buxton challenged the strike call. Newcomb, with ice in his veins, already knew he snagged the strikeout, and didn’t even wait for ABS to clock it.
Taking over in the 10th with the ghost runner on second, the pressure was no match for Bryan Hudson, who struck out the first two batters he faced. Hudson gave up a hit on the next at-bat, but Nishida was prepared out in right and came up firing home and threw the go-ahead run out with a few steps to go. Two games in a row, he’s thrown someone out at home — dare I say the outfield isn’t as scary as of late?
With the winning run standing on second in the bottom of the 10th, the South Siders completely folded and were unable to push the run across. Rikuu’s job was to get the bunt down to move the runner over, but he could not get it done. He even attempted on two strikes, but he let the bat drop and fouled out, completely wasting the at-bat. Antonacci manufactured an infield single to put runners on the corners. Still, the inning ended on a strange unassisted double play after Mune sharply grounded out to first, and Antonacci caught in the cross-hairs. With Luisangel Acuña and his speed on third, it made sense for the Sox to steal with Sam to put both runners in scoring position and take away a double-play opportunity, since the Twins might have just let him have it. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but it would be great if we could go back and try it to see how that play changes without Antonacci on first. So it goes.
On to the 11th we went. And things did not go as smoothly this time around. Righthander Tyler Davis was next out of the pen, and though he struck out one, a Luke Keaschall base hit, and a walk to Buxton loaded the bases up for Brooks Lee, who capitalized with a double to right to clear the bases, 5-2.
Murakami had started the bottom of the 11th on second with the three, four, and five hitters coming up. If the Sox were going to tie or win the game, it was now at this part of the order. Miguel Vargas flied out deep to center, which allowed Mune to move to third, and Montgomery lost an eight-pitch battle and struck out. Down to their last at-bat, Meidroth ripped a base hit out to left that scored Mune and brought up Randal Grichuk as our last hope, who smoked a 104.9 mph grounder to shortstop Ryan Kreidler, who was able to make the play at first to end the game, 5-3. He hit it hard, and it did have a .540 xBA on the play, but a second comeback wasn’t in the cards for the South Siders tonight.
