Mick Abel only needed to see Colson Montgomery twice to see too much of him.
In his first plate appearance, Montgomery drilled a 103-mph line drive off Abel's thigh for an infield single that put runners on the corners. Lenyn Sosa grounded into a double play before the bruise formed, so he otherwise escaped undamaged.
The next inning was a different matter. Montgomery came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs, and after Miguel Vargas drew a walk to put the Sox ahead 2-1. Both the walk to Vargas, and one to Kyle Teel that preceded it, stemmed from Abel being unable to locate breaking balls for strikes, save one slider that backed up on him.
So when Montgomery came to the plate and saw a first-pitch curveball end up well wide, it wasn't surprising to see him get a fastball on the second pitch. And given the way Montgomery is swinging the bat on pitches in the zone, it wasn't a surprise that Montgomery sent it soaring over the right field wall for his first career grand slam.
"You could say they wore him down a little bit for the guys at the top of the order," Montgomery said of the at-bats in front of him. "I was just sticking with my approach, staying aggressive, knew he had to come at me, bases loaded. He didn’t want to walk another guy. He was just staying on the attack and trying to be short to the ball."
That put the Sox ahead 6-1, and this time the White Sox pitching staff preserved the big lead without much drama. The Twins might've homered thrice, but Montgomery's slam out-counted their sum.
Davis Martin dealt with a little trouble early, needing a Matt Wallner double play to get out of a two-on, one-out situation in the first inning, and then yielding a Kody Clemens solo shot that the Twins first baseman pimped with a double bat flip.
But the Sox erased it in one fell swoop in the second, with most of the damage occurring after two outs. The Sox were able to tie it up when Chase Meidroth delivered the third single out of four batters to start the inning, but Michael A. Taylor came up thinking "bunt," and the swing on a sweeper way out of the zone after a fouled off bunt and a pulled-back bunt indicated the discomfort that inspired the plan.
Teel and Vargas were able to lay off the breaking balls away. Teel's walk loaded the bases, and Vargas' put the Sox ahead after laying off a high full-count fastball. Two pitches later, the Sox had all the runs they needed.
If there were any regrets had after a rare comfortable victory, it's that Martin only lasted five innings, and the White Sox only saw one Minnesota reliever.
For Martin's part, he threw well. He allowed a solo shot to Wallner in the fourth, but he could pitch to the score at that point. Brooks Lee singled with two outs to attempt to extend that inning to Clemens, but Martin picked him off to save some pitches. That came in handy, because Martin needed 27 to complete the fifth. The Twins made him work with nine foul balls, and Martin compounded problems by plunking James Outman with the seventh pitch of the plate appearance. But he rebounded by striking out Byron Buxton and getting Trevor Larnach to fly out, so Martin was able to qualify for the win.
"[Teel] did a really good job in that last inning," Martin said. "I told him I lean on my slider and changeup when stuff hits the fan, and he did a really good job of slowing it down and saying 'Hey, we can pop a fastball here and get back in the count with Larnach?' which we did. Then to Buxton up-and-in to clear the way for the slider away. So both of those were him being able to say, 'OK, what have we not done? What are they trying to do to us?'"
Tyler Alexander turned in a typically uneventful long relief appearance, allowing just a Royce Lewis solo shot in the seventh, which is superior to the grand slam Lewis registered the night before. Jordan Leasure pitched the ninth, but a Luis Robert Jr. no-doubter off Thomas Hatch in the eighth pushed it out of a save situation.
"That was an awesome swing," Will Venable said. "Feel like Luis has just been a click away, really quality at-bats, obviously running extremely hard, playing great defense and it’s nice to see the power come, too."
That prevented Hatch from throwing five scoreless innings, but otherwise he did his job. He allowed just two other hits and zero walks while striking out five, and he threw 39 of 54 pitches for strikes. The White Sox spent most the second half of the game in bad counts if they weren't making quick outs, but this was the night where no insurance was necessary.
Bullet points:
*Sosa stayed in the game after drilling a foul ball off the inside of his shin and nearly homered to center. As it stands, he couldn't pad his lead in that category, and now Robert is tied for second with 14.
*Teel went 0-for-3 in the leadoff spot, but his walk made a difference.
*Martin earned his first career victory over the Twins in his fourth start against them, and the White Sox equaled their 2024 win total (10) against AL Central opponents.
"I'm not good at counting, but you know, that's a huge step of improvement," Martin said. "We still have four, five, six series against our division, and I think that's a huge step forward. Those are teams that you're going to see week in and week out. And obviously it's not where we want to be, like, we're still underperforming in that aspect, but it's a big step forward."
Record: 46-83 | Box score | Statcast
