Twins 7, White Sox 0: Sox swept away in Minnesota

Sunday was going to be a tough test on multiple levels for the White Sox. For starters, Dylan Covey had to figure out how to keep the league’s best offense from scoring. Plus, it was Seby Zavala making the first start of his major league career. An arduous task in having to call a game to keep the Twins hitters off-balance and then make good contact against Jake Odorizzi.

Scoreless into the third inning, Zavala’s first at-bat came with Yolmer Sanchez on first base after he walked. Ahead quickly in the count 2-0, Odorizzi challenged the rookie on three straight fastballs in the zone. Zavala swung and missed twice for the second consecutive strikeout of his career. The day wouldn’t get better for Zavala.

The Sox did have an excellent scoring opportunity after Charlie Tilson singled to right field for the game’s first base hit putting runners on first and second base. Yoan Moncada couldn’t convert as he swung through Odorizzi’s 94-mph fastball ending the threat.

Zavala’s first attempt to catch a base stealer was a tough test with Byron Buxton on base after singling to shallow right field. A quick transition after catching the pitch, Zavala’s air-mailed the throw into center field which allowed Buxton to advance another 90 feet.

With Covey in a tight spot, Max Kepler hit a hard line drive to center field that would have easily scored Buxton on a sacrifice fly, but Tilson’s defensive problems from yesterday continued. Misreading the fly ball by moving in instead of stepping back, Kepler’s liner went over Tilson’s head for an RBI double.

Up 1-0, and Covey facing the lineup for a second time, with runners on first and second Eddie Rosario crushed a two-seam fastball for a three-run homer, his 16th of the season, and the Twins were up 4-0.

Outside of that one bad pitch, Covey was pretty good. Over six innings of work, Covey allowed the four runs but on only three hits with six strikeouts and two walks.

White Sox offense had a prime opportunity to cut the deficit in the seventh inning. After Jose Abreu leads it off with a walk Yonder Alonso hit his fifth double of 2019, and with no outs, the Sox had runners in scoring position.

Eloy Jimenez made an excellent attempt to drive in a run, but his liner was hit right at Kepler preventing Abreu from tagging up. Jose Rondon struck out on a high fastball, and Yolmer Sanchez flew out to the left field as the Sox came up empty.

Making things worse, the Twins put up another crooked number when Kepler took Josh Osich to deep center field for a three-run homer, his 12th of 2019, and the Twins had a 7-0 lead.

Zavala’s other three at-bats resulted in strikeouts as he is having a difficult time making contact with 94-95 mph heat in the zone. Not the best of major league debuts going 0-for-3 with three strikeouts and a throwing error in his first exposure in the majors.

Game Notes:

  • The White Sox were outscored 26-5 in the three game sweep.
  • Charlie Tilson went 2-for-4 as he tries to balance his defensive shortcomings with the bat.
  • Yoan Moncada went 1-for-4 extending his current hitting streak to five games.

Record: 23-29 | Box Score | “Highlights”

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
20 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
asinwreck

The Aristocrats!

Jer-in-Az

Basically how I envision Jerry, Kenny, and Hahn presenting to Lozano.  

PauliePaulie

Easy schedule next 2 1/2 weeks.

Greg Nix

I’m shocked at how bad Tilson looks in the outfield. 

metasox

I had once seen a grade of 50 fielding and 45 arm. He was named best defensive outfielder in Cardinals system in 2012.

Maybe that was off. Not sure if he is just adjusting to the ballparks. Or if maybe he lost some speed that had helped him compensate.

Greg Nix

I mean, he’s flat out misread half a dozen fly balls. I don’t think that has anything to do with ballparks or speed. 

Trooper Galactus

From MLB Pipeline in 2016: 11th ranked in our system with grades of 55 Hit, 30 Power, 65 Run, 45 Arm, 55 Field. His arm Arm and Field grades were reduced from his time in St. Louis (50 and 60 respectively) when, in 2015, they wrote, “Tilson still is honing his reads as a runner and defender but projects as a quality basestealer and center fielder. His arm is better than that of most center fielders and gives him a chance to have four average-or-better tools.”

In 2016 their assessment didn’t change much, saying, “His quickness allows him to cover plenty of ground in center field, where Tilson rates as a solid defender. His arm is close to average, making it stronger than that of many players at his position.” This was somewhat tempered in 2017 with, “Tilson’s quickness plays well on defense, where he covers plenty of ground in center field. His below-average arm limits his usefulness in right field yet is fine for center or left.”

I don’t remember anybody predicting he would be this clownish in the outfield, though it is curious he has been employed in right field in half his games, exactly where it was assumed he lacked the arm to play. Maybe his battery of leg and foot injuries (he hurt his foot with the Cardinals also) have affected him more than we appreciate, but yeah, he looks like Delmonico did initially except he isn’t converting from a career at third base.

Pointerbabe

We broke him

soxwhite

If it wasn’t for past and present injuries the 2019 Whitesox would include Jake Burger, Luis Robert, Dane Dunning, Michael Kopech and Carlos Rodon with Eloy Jiminez, Zach Collins and Dylan Cease joining the team during the season

As Cirensica

Don’t stop the “if” game with injures. If we had a competent FO, we would have a nice infield jam with Seimen, TA and Tatis JR. fighting for at-bats. We would had Manny at 3rd, and Grandal would be our catcher.

foryourhead

yawn

Trooper Galactus

I think it might be a bit generous to assume that Burger, Robert, or Collins would have been on the team by now if not for injuries.

MrTopaz

I honestly thought there was a chance the Sox would walk away with two games from this, after playing well the last few games in Houston, and throwing in a liberal dash of “baseball is weird.” Instead, the liberal dash added to this series was “holy shit, these guys are on a fucking rampage, and we’d better hope they respect the time honored tradition of letting the game end if they have the lead after nine innings, because I don’t think anyone could stop them if they decided to keep us here by force so they could keep scoring runs off us.”

Seriously, I think these Twins might even do alright against the Yankees in the playoffs.

Yolmer

Their starting pitching is not actually good. I think this was an example of a getting better but still kind of mediocre Sox team running into a good but unsustainably hot Twins team.

MrTopaz

Oh, sure. They’ll suffer regression, but I buy the narrative that this isn’t the same as when they got off to a hot start in… ’17, was it? When they just sort of fizzled out after a hot start and never got it going again. I think these guys have some staying power. Would’ve been nice for the Sox to build a dominant team before the Twins did this, but…

(Shrugs, puts rocks in pockets, walks into the lake.)

Yolmer

I don’t buy their pitching beyond Berrios. I think their lineup is legitimately good, although even the lineup will probably level off a notch below what they are doing now. 2017 they won the wildcard after losing 100+ games in 2016. I think how Buxton, Sano, Polanco, and Berrios are playing is a lesson for the Sox that top 100 prospects might need a couple of years to come into their own. They are good, but I would bet against them making the playoffs for the right odds. I could see them falling off when their pitching returns to normal and the lineup levels off.

PauliePaulie

Yeah. They might fall off, and only win 100 games.

As Cirensica

Kyle Gibson is very underrated. He is actually a pretty decent pitcher. Same with Odorizzi. I think Twins issues are found in the bullpen, but that can easily addressed with trades, and maybe even signing Kimbrel I mean, why not? Team is doing really well to justify the investment.

metasox

Mediocre would be welcome

iowasox1971

Minnesota wasn’t projected to be much better than us this season. The Twins’ success shows what you can do when you make a few smart moves in the offseason, and your players know how to catch routine fly balls.
Really disappointing showing by Zavala. The last thing you want is for the Sox to have an excuse to bring Castillo back.
The White Sox have simply given up in too many games this season. I’m tired of hearing how “Ricky’s boys don’t quit.” Well, quitters get outscored 25-1 after taking a 4-1 lead in the first game of a series.