White Sox Top Twins, 10-8

The Minnesota Twins scored five runs on Chris Sale.  The Minnesota Twins lost anyway.  I don't blame the stupid red jerseys, but I don't not blame them, either.

In a game that saw four lead changes, the Chicago White Sox had the all-important fourth one, scoring four times in the bottom of the 8th and claiming a 10-8 victory.

The South Siders jumped to an early 2-0 lead off Twins starter and obvious giant 12 year old Logan Darnell.  With Chris Sale toeing the rubber at home, it seemed like it would be a long night.  And it was, just not in the way you'd expect.  The Twins knocked Sale around for five runs in the third, with doubles from Kurt Suzuki and newbie Kennys Vargas keying the rally.  Vargas' ground-run double was a nice oppo job and provided the first two RBI of his career.

While that was unexpected, the White Sox hammering away at the inexperienced Darnell was not, and they chased him after just four innings.  Chicago scored a single run in each of the next four innings off Darnell and Anthony Swarzak to regain the lead.

To their credit, the Twins fought back.  A Suzuki single knotted the game at sixes, then a GENE solo dong in the top of the 8th gave Minnesota another lead.

It was short-lived, as Chicago lit up Casey Fien in the bottom of the frame.  Rather than describe all the carnage, I'll just give you his stat line: .1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER.  It still looks bad, doesn't it?  Oh well.

Since the game needed to be longer (almost four hours, and no bottom of the 9th), the Twins rallied off Whities closer Jake Petricka, loading the bases with nobody out in the ninth.  Suzuki provided another RBI with a fielder's choice, but that was all the damage they could do.

Oh well.

Robot Roll Call

Charts & Graphs

Source: FanGraphs

Enjoy your weekend, everybody.