The Twins entered the night with a shot at wresting second place away from the White Sox yet this season, trailing by two games with three to play. Unfortunately, that (extremely modest) dream is dead.

The first inning alone was a bit of a roller coaster, with Carlos Correa gunned down at second base trying to stretch a single into a double. But with two outs, Nick Gordon doubled and Gio Urshela parked a home run to right field.

In his final start of the season, Bailey Ober pitched well once again. He only allowed three baserunners, not counting a fifth-inning error by Gordon. The only poor frame was in the second, when Ober gave up a one-out single to AJ Pollock and a two-run homer to Josh Harrison.

Minnesota’s offense was almost entirely carried by Correa and Urshela. The Twins’ shortstop continued his recent tear with singles in his first three at-bats, but the Twins couldn’t do anything with them. In fact, the Twins only managed multiple baserunners in an inning in the first and ninth innings.

Still, Ober and the Twins bullpens were good enough to keep them in the game. With things still tied at two in the bottom of the seventh, Griffin Jax gave up a single to Pollock on the first pitch of the frame. After retiring both Harrison and Mark Payton, Pollock stole second base and ultimately scored on a Carlos Perez single.

Emilio Pagan set the Sox down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth, and the Twins loaded the bases against Old Friend Liam Hendriks to make things interesting.

Urshela lead off the inning with a single. After strikeouts from Jake Cave and Gary Sanchez, Matt Wallner was hit by a pitch and Gilberto Celestino worked a walk to bring up Mark Contreras with the bases juiced. With Luis Arraez on the bench due to his hamstring issue and unavailable to pinch-hit, the rookie outfielder went down swinging on a 2-2 fastball to end the game.

Notes

• Luis Arraez didn’t play due to injury and Aaron Judge went 1-for-4 in the Yankees' win over the Rangers on Monday. Judge’s average dipped to .311 while Arraez holds at .315.
• Gary Sanchez continues his absolute tumble to the bottom, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. His average is down to .203 and his OPS sits at .648, which is only above Celestino among Twins regulars.
• The Twins had seven hits, and five of them came from the Correa-Urshela combo.
• If there had been any question at all, the past four starts have settled it: Bailey Ober is a nice piece to pencil into the rotation for next year.

Studs

• Carlos Correa: 3-for-4
• Gio Urshela: 2-for-4 HR, 2 RBI
• Bailey Ober: 5 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, BB, 4 K

Duds

• Gary Sanchez: 0-for-4, 3 K
• Jake Cave: 0-for-4, 2 K