Vasquez Valiant, Sale Sails as White Sox Blank Twins, 6-0

It looked like a mismatch on paper. The Twins, without Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit or Chris Parmelee, up against All-Star and noted Skinny Person Chris Sale, with the unproven Esmerling Vasquez taking the hill for MInnesota. And although the erratic Vasquez kept the Twins in the game, the paper won out as Chicago cruised to a 6-0 win.

The White Sox broke through in the second, with Alex Rios' lead-off double leading to the game's first run. They threatened to break it open in the 4th, when Vasquez walked three batters in a row, plating a second run on a bases-loaded walk to Dayan Viciedo. But that was all they could manage, and Vasquez settled down and was "effectively wild," in the parlance of our Deduno-laden times. He was one strike away from notching a quality start before walking another batter and getting pulled with two outs in the top of the 6th. His final line: just two hits, 3 ER, 4 BB and 4K. Okay, I guess?

Although the Twins would occasionally get a runner on base against Chris Sale, they never seriously threatened to score on the lankiest guy this side of local internet meme "Hollis." He did go a full six, giving up three hits and striking out five.

The White Sox padded their lead off of Twins reliever Kyle Waldrop, who allowed Vasquez's third earned run of the game on an Alexi Ramirez single upon entering the game. A solo home run by Kevin Youkilis in the 7th made it 4-0, and a run-scoring single by Alex Rios in that same inning made it 5-0. They tacked on a final run in the 9th, while Brett Myers and Matt Thornton pitched three innings of hitless relief to close out the victory.

Studs: Sale. If you want a Twin, Vasquez, I suppose.

Duds: Chris Sale is elite, so I'm not going to call out a depleted Twins lineup here.

Enjoy your weekend, everybody.