For the second straight night, the White Sox started loud, then went quiet.
For the third straight start, Anthony Kay hit a wall before the fifth inning.
Erick Fedde was able to spearhead a pitching effort that guided the lead over the finish line on Friday, but this combination tonight led to a 3-0 first-inning lead going by the boards in the middle innings, and the Sox offense coming up short of providing a commensurate counter in a 6-4 loss to the Twins to set up a rubber match on Sunday.
One night after Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery joined the 30-homer club, Munetaka Murakami joined them with an opposite-field high fly that drifted, drifted, drifted to the back of the White Sox bullpen for a two-run shot, since Sam Antonacci started Taj Bradley's night with a walk. Before Bradley could bring the inning to a close, Colson Montgomery hit a 112.3-mph missile that a fan somehow caught one-handed in the front row of the landing behind right field.
Bradley eventually settled in, while Kay eventually became unsettled. After needing just 37 pitches to throw three innings, and a Miguel Vargas error being the only reason he was one batter over the minimum, the Twins started dragging out battles the second time through. Kaelen Culpepper muscled a cutter to left for a single, Josh Bell split the left-center gap on a cutter to put runners on second and third, and while Kay was one batter away from limiting the damage to one run after a 4-6 forceout, Brooks Lee lined a down-and-in fastball to the left field corner to make it a 3-2 game.
Kay then opened the fifty by grazing Ryan Kreidler's elbow on a 2-2 fastball to turn over the Twins lineup, and he eventually paid the price for issuing a free base to the ninth hitter. Luke Keaschall took an outside pitch to right field, and while Culpepper grounded out, Kay grooved a cutter to Ryan Jeffers, who got all of it for a three-run shot that put the Twins ahead 5-3.
The White Sox had scoring opportunities, but they were all late-emerging, and they only could convert on one of them. The Sox answered for one of those Twins runs when Meidroth led off with a single, but only got to second after a two-out steal. Antonacci worked his second walk of the game, and Vargas pulled a single through the right side to narrow the gap to 5-4.
That turned out to be the only White Sox hit with runners in scoring position, as Tristan Peters' one-out double in the seventh went nowhere, as did Randal Grichuk's two-out double in the eighth.
Sean Newcomb ended up giving that run back in the top of the seventh inning, as Keaschall singled and Culpepper doubled into the right-field corner to produce the final score. Oddly, the White Sox's only high-leverage guy used was the only reliever scored upon. Trevor Richards retired all three batters he faced after Kay, Tyler Schweitzer benefited from a Kody Clemens TOOTBLAN that erased a leadoff walk with an 8-3 double play, and Tyler Davis faced the minimum in the ninth.
Bullet points:
*Kay has now failed to complete the fifth his last three times out, and there's a stark divide between the first three innings and what comes after:
- First 3 innings: 9 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 0 HBP
- Innings 4-5: 4⅔ IP, 14 H, 13 R, 13 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 2 HBP
He rejected the opener earlier in the season, but this kind of performance is crying out for help.
*Murakami beat his own White Sox record with the highest launch angle of a homer in the Statcast era. This one registered at 49 degrees, beating his 48-degree shot against Drew Pomerantz back in April. The only other White Sox to clear 45 degrees? Seby Zavala, who did it twice.
*Montgomery now has the White Sox shortstop home run record, as he'd been tied with Jose Valentin at 30.
*At least the Tigers finally held a lead, so the White Sox's AL Central lead is still 2½ games.
