Justin Jirschele's first send of Miguel Vargas put the White Sox on the board.
The second send of Vargas helped cut their eighth-inning rally one run short.
The White Sox dug themselves out of a 4-1 deficit, and when they fell behind 8-4, they strung together enough quality plate appearances to draw within one while still having the bases loaded with one out and Colson Montgomery at the plate against a righty.
Montgomery was a key figure in the first comeback, as he doubled and scored in the fourth, then hit a game-tying two-run shot in the fifth. But this time, he could only muster a pop-up into foul territory behind third base. Royce Lewis flagged it down with his momentum heading away from the plate, and that's why Jirschele decided to get aggressive. Or, perhaps just Vargas did.
"Aggressive play; if we were able to take that back, we would," said Will Venable. "There was potentially some miscommunication after talking to Jirsch about it. He took responsibility for that. For me, gotta clean that up. It’s a big spot."
"I thought I had a good shot and then I didn’t, so that was on me," Vargas said. "It’s on me 100 percent. It wasn’t the play for me to go and score, especially when we have Luis [Robert Jr. on deck]. I take all the responsibility and I have to be better."
In his defense, Vargas was out at home on a bang-bang play -- albeit one that didn't necessitate a review. The throw needed to be on line, and it was. Working against Jirschele and Vargas, the throw didn't have to be strong to be successful, and Robert would've been coming to the plate with the bases loaded, even if a productive out would've no longer been sufficient.
Then again, it might've been a moot point, because Grant Taylor walked the first batter of the ninth inning on four pitches, and he came around to score on a single for an insurance run Minnesota didn't need, capping off another rough night for the bullpen.
In fact, the White Sox's run prevention game was flawed on all three fronts. Aaron Civale's start would've been a fine one were it not for the fourth inning, but while Lenyn Sosa did him the favor of letting a pop-up drop in order to remove the bigger baserunning threat for the bases, Civale found a way to nullify the random heads-up play. He gave up a single to Brooks Lee, walked James Outman on three easy takes after getting ahead 1-2, and while his first-pitch cutter to Royce Lewis wasn't terribly located, it must've been the pitch Lewis was anticipating, for he pulled it over the left field wall for his sixth career grand slam and a 4-1 Minnesota lead.
"I thought it was away from him just enough, but it was just up enough for him to go out there and get it," said Civale, before alluding to some sequencing issues. "It was the first pitch of that at-bat, but just how I attacked him in the first at-bat. There's eight hitters in between for me, but it's the same pitcher for him. Just some thoughts to think about, continue to grow and chat and discuss some things with some other guys, whether its players or coaches."
Civale limited the damage otherwise, and the White Sox offense got him off the hook, but the prolonged mess limited him to five innings, which left even a rested bullpen exposed. Brandon Eisert won two of the three left-on-left battles to start his inning, but after intentionally walking Byron Buxton to put two on with two out for Trevor Larnach, he lost that platoon advantage with a single up the middle that put the Twins back ahead, 5-4. Luke Keaschall then shot a single through the right side for the third hit and second run of the inning.
Wikelman González then opened the seventh by walking Ryan Jeffers, and that's when shaky defense entered the picture. Chase Meidroth compounded the problem by firing wide of Colson Montgomery on what should've been a rather routine force at second on Lee's grounder to the right side. Jeffers came around to score, Lee moved up to second, and then he scored on a firm Edouard Julien single to left, successfully outrunning Andrew Benintendi's arm.
"One of these days where between mistakes on the bases and some walks, just gotta do a better job," Venable said.
While the Twins led 8-4, the White Sox got their first look at a late-inning deficit against Minnesota without Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran looming in the bullpen, and they had to like what they saw. Génesis Cabrera retired Curtis Mead to start the eighth, but he walked Meidroth, and then Edgar Quero lined a single to left. A left-on-left walk to Mike Tauchman loaded the bases, and that's when Rocco Baldelli came out for righty Justin Topa.
The move didn't help, at least not immediately. He immediately fell behind 3-0 on Vargas with sweepers, got back into the count with sinkers, and then missed with a sweeper to walk home a run. Kyle Teel then singled through the right side, and Lenyn Sosa shot a base hit to center, but each only scored one run. The stop signs were warranted, but they might've made Jirschele and Vargas itchy for action.
That's how his game started. Vargas and Teel drew one-out walks against Zebby Matthews, and when Sosa pulled a single through the left side, Vargas scored standing as the throw home was well off line. Colson Montgomery popped out, but Luis Robert Jr. was able to keep the inning alive by beating out a broken-bat bouncer to the left side.
Unfortunately, the inning was only extended by seconds, because Julien came off the bag to handle the throw and turned his attention to Teel, whose attempt to score on the play required being ignored. He was out by 30 feet, and the White Sox had the first of two costly outs at the plate.
"That's something that we've talked about with two outs in certain situations, [waving home] that runner at second base," Venable said. "In that case with Luis, who can beat out that ball even on a good throw, you don't want to do it there. It's something we talked about and corrected. So, just being overly aggressive there, in different situations we do like that play. Just not in that one with Luis on that ball."
"That's a thing that a lot of teams are doing now," Teel said. "More teams are doing that in this game than not, and there's a reason. A lot of times, you'll catch teams off guard. They were ready for it, so props to them."
Bullet points:
*The Sox and Twins provided nearly identical production, with 12 hits, eight free bases, five hits with runners in scoring position, and a double-digit amount of runners stranded.
*Teel and Quero both came up with two-hit games in their first day of having Korey Lee on the bench as a third catcher.
*Tyler Gilbert was the only reliever unscored upon, working around a two-out single and stolen base to post a zero in the eighth.
