Twins battle back, fall short in 3-2 loss to White Sox in 10 innings
CHICAGO — It felt like Throwback Tuesday at Guaranteed Rate Field: Alex Colomé blew a save, and the Twins lost a game.
Only this time, there was an even uglier twist for the Twins.
Colomé, making his White Sox debut, surrendered a game-tying home run to former teammate Nick Gordon. But two innings later, Andrew Benintendi broke that tie by lining a two-out single into left field, scoring courtesy runner Hanser Alberto from third base, and the White Sox outlasted the Twins 3-2 in 10 innings.
"We've got to score more, there's no way around it," a disappointed Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "It's going to be hard to win a game like this, not hitting too many balls on the barrel."
Of course, neither did the White Sox, not until late in a game that had virtually no drama in the first six innings, save for the question of whether White Sox righthander Michael Kopech might no-hit the Twins. And Joe Ryan pitched even better than Kopech.
BOXSCORE: Chicago White Sox 3, Twins 2 (10 innings)
Ryan was close to his best on Tuesday — yet somehow the Twins' streak of winning Ryan's last nine starts came to an end. The righthander allowed only one hit, a line-drive single by Gavin Sheets in the second inning, over six rapid-fire innings, while striking out seven.
"He's been on point every time he's taken the field. Nothing more a starting pitcher can do," Baldelli said of Ryan, still 5-0 after his first no-decision. "He's been great. Basically, all of his outings have looked exactly like this, just rock-solid."
But when Tim Anderson forced Ryan to throw 12 pitches before walking him in the six, inflating his pitch count near 90, Baldelli decided to pull him with a 1-0 lead. And the Twins' relief corps couldn't preserve that narrow lead.
Kopech carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, though only barely — it required Benintendi to reach over the left field fence and rob Carlos Correa of a first-inning home run.
"That's a few games recently where we miss a home run by [inches]," Baldelli said. "Benintendi made a really nice play. He had a good day against us in a lot of ways."
The Twins finally got their first hit when Byron Buxton smacked a hard grounder just past Anderson's diving effort to stop it. Kopech, who had already walked three Twins, then moved Buxton to third by walking Jorge Polanco and Carlos Correa, too. When Trevor Larnach hit a medium-depth fly ball to center field, Buxton easily scored what looked like might be the night's only run.
But then the relief staffs got involved, and they had nowhere near the success of the starters. The White Sox, in fact, needed only seven pitches to tie the game as Ryan watched.
Twins reliever Jorge López surrendered a leadoff single to Andrew Vaughn, then watched his first pitch to Eloy Jiménez disappear over the left-field wall.
"Stupid pitch in stupid game," López grumbled.
Colomé, whose unfortunate one-year stint with the Twins included seven losses and seven blown saves, would agree. Handed the ball just hours after being called up from Class AAA Charlotte, the veteran didn't make a great first impression with the White Sox.
The Twins sent up Gordon, hitting only .127 this season, to pinch hit for center fielder Michael A. Taylor. Colomé committed a pitch-clock violation before ever throwing a pitch, then fell behind 3-1 throwing nothing but cutters. On his fourth pitch back in the majors, he left a 93-mph fastball on the outer edge, and Gordon pummeled it into the stands, tying the game until Benintendi's 10th-inning winner.
"I was hitting balls hard [in April] and just kind of didn't get any luck. Didn't let it beat me down. … Feels good," said Gordon, who also made a pair of running catches in center field. Did he regret making his former teammate look bad?
"Hey, kid's got to eat," he said with a smile.
