Twins 5, White Sox 3 (11 innings): A long, strange ride back to .500

In terms of cathartic plays that will probably make the end-of-season highlight reel, Munetaka Murakami ripping a game-tying two-run homer off Joe Ryan in the eighth, and Rikuu Nishida collecting his second outfield assist in as many days to preserve a 2-2 tie in the 10th felt like game-breaking moments.

In terms of Tuesday night's game, Nishida striking out trying to get a bunt down in the bottom of the 10th before Murakami bounced into an odd-looking inning-ending double play--where Sam Antonacci had to hold up at first in case the soft flare to Josh Bell was caught, only to be dead meat when it wasn't--cast a longer shadow.

"Kind of a weird play there, where there's a bunch of chaos and the ball didn't bounce our way," Will Venable said of the play that ended the 10th, before affirming he kept the bunt on with Nishida even after two strikes. "Once you get to two strikes against a guy who's really tough against lefties, that at-bat where we're set up to bunt, go ahead and commit through two strikes there. With that being the skill set that [Nishida] does very well, that was the calculus to go ahead and try to get [pinch runner Luisangel Acuña to third], knowing that you've got some guys behind him."

Well, there was that and also Brooks Lee lifting a bases-clearing double to right off Tyler Davis in the 11th while Grant Taylor and Seranthony Domínguez sat (both were unavailable for workload management, per Venable), served to eventually return a game to the Twins that they had controlled up until a chaotic final few innings.

"It was a hard loss, really difficult," Murakami said via interpreter, seemingly more focused on his 10th inning at-bat than the one in the eighth. "I just came up in my last at-bat and I had my chances and I couldn't convert them. I could've hit that fly out and scored a run. You have to keep practicing and contribute as much as possible."

Joe Ryan had breezed through seven scoreless innings Tuesday night when the White Sox suddenly reaped the benefits of being another American company that has outsourced its manufacturing to Japan. Nishida led off the eighth with a soft single to left, which in a 2-0 game, dramatically raised the stakes of Ryan's fourth encounter of the night with Murakami.

It began inauspiciously, as Murakami burned the team's last challenge on a 1-0 pitch. But Ryan's third-straight sweeper wound up the low-and-in honeyhole for left-handed sluggers, and Murakami ripped over the right field fence for his American League-leading 19th home run. In one swing, the game was tied, and all these following paragraphs about how dominant Ryan was up to that point less relevant.

There are approach angle and pitch shape reasons for why Ryan's four-seamer is one of the best pitches in the game, but that it was sitting 2 mph harder than his season average nudged him into new levels of brutal efficiency. That, or just everything plays up when you're ahead in the count. Ryan threw first-pitch strikes to 24 of 30 hitters, and the constant advantage counts allowed him to blow through checkpoints at a pace that dampened hopes of getting to the Twins bullpen early. Though in the end, Chase Meidroth's two-out RBI single in the 11th was the only blow the Sox landed off a Twins reliever.

After plunking Antonacci to open his night, Ryan retired him on a fly out to wrap up three hitless innings on 31 pitches. Despite a pair of two-out singles from Colson Montgomery and Meidroth, the former of which led Ryan to toss his glove in mock frustration, he was through four innings on 51 pitches, and needed only 22 more for the fifth and sixth.

When a pair of video game glitches built another small two-out threat in the seventh--Andrew Benintendi grounding a single off the first base bag, Tristan Peters taking an 0-2 bouncer for a hit by pitch that stood upon replay review--Ryan struck out Drew Romo on three pitches and returned for the eighth at 86 pitches. Maybe that was just setting the trap.

Such was Ryan's dominance that one poor sequence--or really one hard-hit ball in between two bloops--had Sean Burke spending most of his night in line for the loss despite his best outing in three weeks. Pitching over a pair of walks in the second, Burke was through three scoreless when Trevor Larnach opened the fourth with a sinking bloop to right. Nishida's ill-advised dive played it into a double, but that was at least rendered moot by Clemens ripping an RBI triple into the right field corner to open the scoring, before coming home himself three pitches later when Austin Martin punched a sinker to center for a medium-strength RBI single.

"I've been a little sick the past couple of days and I tried to rest a little this morning, but felt a little lethargic the first couple of innings," Burke said. "I just felt like my legs were under me and felt a lot better as the game went on."

Three-straight hits to open the inning might have scanned as a pitcher on the ropes to some, but Martin was wiped out of the equation by a strong Drew Romo throw while trying to steal second, and Burke took the respite and ran with it. He retired the last 11 Twins in order, dotting old friend Tristan Gray three-straight times to close out the seventh and match his season-high with eight strikeouts.

Bullet points:

*The White Sox video review team essentially got Sean Newcomb a double play in the top of the ninth, successfully challenging that Lee rolled into Meidroth on a Bell grounder to third, which Miguel Vargas made a brilliant spinning play on to glove in the first place. It was welcome revenge for Meidroth, who had his infield single reversed to end the bottom of the eighth and strand Montgomery in scoring position.

*Normally it's not good to be living through a major moment in history, but Antonacci getting his 11th HBP in 37 games feels like an exception.

*Burke threw an even 100 pitches, the third time in his career he's reached triple digits.

*Montgomery, quietly in a 4-for-33 funk in nine games since his last multi-hit effort, had two hits.

*Austin Hays was scratched from his scheduled rehab game with Triple-A Charlotte Tuesday due to residual soreness in his left calf.

Record: 27-27 | Box score | Statcast