Omar Little of The Wire said it best, “You come at the king, you best not miss.” The Twins were the prohibitive favorites and the White Sox took their shot and missed. The Sox lost two games out of three to the Minnesota Twins in the first series of the season.
The Lead-up
The Twins earned everyone’s admiration after their monster 2019 campaign. They won the AL Central by eight games, winning 101 games under the first year of their new manager Rocco Baldelli. The White Sox saw what the Twins had done and reloaded this offseason with big offseason signings and trades: Yasmani Grandal, Edwin Encarnacion, Nomar Mazara, Dallas Keuchel, and Steve Cishek. They also locked down Luis Robert and Aaron Bummer with long-term extensions. The White Sox were making a run to unseat the Twins in 2020.
Fast Forward to Monday night, the Twins were looking up at the White Sox as they sat in first place with the Cleveland Indians. The Twins had fallen on rough times, slipping out of first place after three consecutive losses to the Detroit Tigers. Even though the White Sox were in first, they couldn’t take their foot off the gas pedal. The White Sox needed to prove that they could beat the Twins.
The Pitcher
Lucas Giolito was coming off the pitching performance of his career, a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. But that didn’t erase Giolito’s worst start of the year, an opening day debacle against the very same Twins. It was the opportunity for Giolito to prove that he could pitch against the Twins; that the White Sox are number one.
The moment Giolito stepped on the mound, he looked uneasy.
He got through the first inning easily, but the second inning was one of the worst innings the White Sox have had all season. Despite the frustration of an awful inning, Giolito did an excellent job of limiting the damage. Giolito had a much better 3rd inning, despite giving up a solo home run to Miguel Sano. The White Sox were now behind 4-0.
In years past, having a 4-0 start to a good team like the Twins meant the game was over, but this was a different The White Sox were playing to win. In the dugout, Giolito could be seen conferring with C James McCann. Trying to understand where he was going wrong, and more importantly, how to move forward.
Despite his high pitch count, Giolito was determined to complete five innings. He was going to salvage the game long enough for the offense to come alive.
The Error(s)
The White Sox were expecting the bottom of the second to be as straight forward as the first, three batters, three outs. After eight pitches into the bottom of the second, Giolito walked the first batter, OF Eddie Rosario. Never a great start to an inning. Next up was 3B Miguel Sano, but after a full pitch count, Sano hit a single. Adam Engle made an error on the hit and allowed both runners to move up an extra base. Luis Arraez stepped up to hit a single to deep left-center and gave the Twins a 1-0 lead.
With runners on 1st and 3rd with no outs, Giolito got Marwin Gonzalez to hit a perfect grounder to 2B Nick Madrigal. But Madrigal missed his throw, allowed both runners to score and the batter advance to second. The score was now 3-0 and still, no outs.
Giolito came back to strikeout OF Jake Cave and got C Ryan Jeffers to line out. Two outs, one to go.
Up to bat was OF Max Kepler. The last time Giolito faced Kepler on opening day, he had taken Giolito deep, twice. Not this time. Giolito got him to hit a tapper right back to him, only to make an error and allow Kepler to be safe and Gonzalez to move to third.
One more out to close the inning. One more out. Giolito kept his composure, and SS Jorge Polanco struck out swinging.
One inning, three errors, three runs, and 33 pitches. The offense would need to come to life tonight and help Giolito and the White Sox come back to win this game.
The Offense
The White Sox started off the fourth inning with three straight walks to load up the bases with no outs. Danny Mendick came up to bat but grounded out into a strange fielder’s choice that had everyone confused as to whether or not the ball had remained in play. After a long pause, Luis Robert was called forced out at second.
OF Adam Engel stepped up, bases still loaded. This was the chance to cut the lead down. The count was 2-1 when Engel struck a single to center field. That one hit was enough for Encarnacion and McCann to score. The deficit was cut in half.
The score was now 2-4, and the White Sox still had runners on 1st and third with one out. 2B Nick Madrigal struck out, and SS Tim Anderson stepped up to the plate and drew a walk to load the bases once again. OF Eloy Jimenez stepped up to bat but failed to get any more runs across.
The top of the sixth started just like the last three innings. The White Sox got their first two batters aboard with no outs, but, just like the previous three innings, Anderson and Jimenez could not move the bases. The White Sox had two outs, and their hottest hitter was up. Abreu was advancing to the bat.
The Twins’ pitcher, Tyler Clippard, threw a wild pitch, letting both runners advance to second and third base. Abreu still had to get a hit. And hit he did. Abreau came up big, rocking a double to deep right-center. Nomar Mazara and Nick Madrigal both scored, tying the game.
The White Sox had come back from that 4-0 start and tied it 4-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth. Codi Heuer was pitching for the White Sox. He let a leadoff walk to Sano but was able to get the next two outs. OF Jake Cave, however, managed to cash in a single to right-center to score Sano. Once again, the Twins took the lead, but a one-run lead wasn’t going to stick in this game.
The White Sox came up in the 7th, and Luis Robert hit one of the hardest-hit home runs to center field for a 449-foot shot to tie the game back up at 5-5. Robert is proving his game is well beyond his years as he keeps coming big in huge spots for this White Sox team. Robert is only 23 years old but has the poise of a veteran.
RP Jace Fry and RP Matt Foster held firm to keep the game at 5-5 over the next two innings to get it to the top of the 9th.
The Ninth
The Twins’ closer, Taylor Rogers, came in to hold the White Sox in the 9th. The White Sox had two runners on with one out, and rookie phenom Robert was up to bat yet again. Robert muscled a ground-rule double that scored Yolmer Sanchez giving the White Sox the lead, 6-5.
Nomar Mazara stepped up to the plate and came through with his biggest hit as a White Sox player and one of the season’s biggest hits when he slapped a single to right to score two more runs heading into the bottom of the 9th inning.
Alex Colome made quick work of the Twins in the bottom of the 9th to record his 7th saves in 8 games, and it only took him 14 pitches. This gave the White Sox sole possession of first place for the first time all season. The White Sox record is at 22-13 with the Twins now 2.5 games behind them.
The Aftermath
This game was a complete 180 for the White Sox as the Twins were now the team looking up. The Twins thought they had the White Sox when they went up 4-0, just like good old Avon Barksdale when he set up to have Omar Little killed. Omar ruined that plan quickly and painfully. The Twins came in and got the lead, but they didn’t kill the king. They left the door wide open for the White Sox to steal this game and remind them to take the king out when you have the chance.
The White Sox will run out Dallas Keuchel to take on Michael Pineda, making his season debut on Tuesday night. Time for the White Sox to give Pineda a friendly 2020 welcome and show him why the White Sox sit on top of the division.
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