Mistakes Spoil Comeback Attempt As Chicago White Sox Lose 9-7 To Twins

CHICAGO –– The White Sox nearly completed a big comeback, but instead they were left frustrated with a few mistakes that contributed to a 9-7 loss to the Minnesota Twins Friday at Rate Field.

The first notable slip-up came in the first inning. Luis Robert Jr. hit a ground ball to shortstop Brooks Lee, whose throw pulled first baseman Edouard Julien off the bag and allowed Robert to reach safely. White Sox catcher Kyle Teel began the play on second base and trie d to come all the way around to score, but he was nabbed several steps before reaching home plate for the inning-ending out.

“That's something that we've talked about with two outs in certain situations, wheeling that runner at second base,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “In that case with Luis, who can beat out that ball even on a good throw, you know, you don't want to do it there. It's something we talked about and corrected. Yeah, so just being overly aggressive there, in different situations we do like that play just not in that one with Luis on that ball."

"That's a thing that a lot of teams are doing now,” Teel said. “More teams are doing that in this game than not, and there's a reason. A lot of times, you'll catch teams off guard. They were ready for it, so props to them."

White Sox starter Aaron Civale worked three s coreless innings to begin Friday’s outing, and he was one strike away from getting out of the fourth during two separate at-bats. Instead, he allowed a single to Brooks Lee and walked James Outman in back-to-back at-bats with two strikes to load the bases. 

And one pitch later, Royce Lewis drove Civale’s cutter 386 feet for a grand slam to give the Twins a 4-1 lead. One pitch brought home every run the Twins scored off Civale, who finished with five innings, five hits, four earned runs, four walks and five strikeouts.

"Thought I did a really good job competing. Obviously I want that one pitch back, but even leading up to it I felt I was a little too, trying to be too precise, led to a couple of walks leading up to it,” Civale said. “But in terms of where the cutter was, I thought it was away from him just enough, but it was just up enough for him to go out there and get it.” 

“To his credit, he's a good hitter. He's done really well with the bases loaded in his career. Think if it's just down or up a little bit more we're in a good spot and it's a different story. But I felt good and did a good job competing the whole time."

After Brandon Eisert gave up two runs in the sixth, Wikelman Gonzalez came on to pitch the seventh. He walked the leadoff hitter, who came around to score from first in the next at-bat on a throwing error from second baseman Chase Meidroth on a double play attempt. 

Gonzalez struck out the next two batters and was one strike away from retiring Julien, but a single to left field brought home a second unearned run of the inning and gave the Twins an 8-4 lead.

The White Sox could have gone away quietly in the final two innings, but they made a legitimate push to overcome the four-run deficit. The first run came home after three walks and a single, and singles by Teel and Lenyn Sosa in the next two at-bats made it an 8-7 game.

That brought up rookie Colson Montgomery, who doubled and homered earlier in the game, with one out and the bases loaded. On a 3-2 count, Montgomery popped out to foul territory in shallow left field for the second out. Lewis caught the ball running toward the outfield, but he turned around and threw out Miguel Vargas at home as he attempted to tag up and tie the game.

“Aggressive play. If we were able to take that back, we would obviously,” Venable said. “There was potentially some miscommunication after talking to [third base coach Justin Jirschele] about it. He took responsibility for that. For me, gotta clean that up. It’s a big spot. Just didn’t work out for us.”

Venabl e clarified the miscommunication was between Jirschele and Vargas, who took responsibility. 

“It was on me,” Vargas said. “I thought I had a good shot and then I didn’t. So that was on me. … It’s on me 100%. It wasn’t the play for me to go and score, especially when we have Luis behind. I take all the responsibility and I have to be better.”

Those few mistakes wiped away an otherwise productive night from a White Sox lineup that scored seven runs on 12 hits while giving away a couple outs on the basepaths. Civale was also a strike away from getting out of the fourth before giving up the grand slam, which accounted for four of the Twins’ nine runs.

“It’s good we kept fighting the whole game, even when we fell behind in the first couple of inning,” Vargas said. “Every time we have a good fight like this, it’s a good thing. Hopefully in the future we’re going to have a good result.”

With this loss, the White Sox drop to 45-83, or 33 games below .500, their most of the season.