After two night of scoring early and being quieted the rest of the night, the White Sox couldn't cash in their early opportunities, stranding five runners over the first three innings.
But unlike the first two games of this series, the White Sox kept applying pressure, and Minnesota's pitchers eventually buckled.
A resounding, cathartic moment waited until the waning innings, but what the White Sox lacked in big hits, they made up for with a massive denominator. They had 21 at-bats with runners in scoring position tonight, allowing them to eventually come through with the five hits that made it all pay off.
It was more than enough support for an outstanding Johnny Wholestaff effort, which held the Twins to just four hits, with a seventh-inning Brooks Lee solo shot the only damage.
The White Sox had José Urquidy lined up for bulk work, but with an off day on Monday, Will Venable went with a true bullpen game instead, and Hagen Smith tied the whole effort together. Bryan Hudson handled the first five outs, and Jordan Hicks tagged in to get the Sox through three full innings, but Smith took care of the middle third of the game all by himself, and by retiring all nine batters he faced. Four strikeouts is a nice enough total, but it somehow undersells the effort a little. He needed just 35 pitches on the strength of 27 strikes, including 14 called strikes that put Minnesota hitters on the ropes.
Smith happened to be on the mound when the White Sox finally ceased the scorelessness, but he would've likely been awarded the win regardless for his dominance. The Sox offense wouldn't leave it in the scorer's hands.
While Sam Antonacci's bloop double in the first inning went nowhere, his lined double to the left-field corner off Bailey Ober in the fifth finally got the party started. He came around to score on Munetaka Murakami's single through the right side two batters later, and the Sox couldn't be kept off the scoreboard the rest of the night.
The big breakthrough happened the next inning. Tristan Peters foiled a lefty-lefty matchup by doubling off Kody Funderburk, which prompted Derek Shelton to call for Andrew Morris. He walked Chase Meidroth, but jammed Kyle Teel into a weak grounder up the middle. It seemed like the Twins had a chance for two, or at least cutting down a lead runner, but Kaelen Culpepper opted for the out at first.
That mattered, because with runners on second and third, the Twins brought the infield in, which gave Antonacci the angle to smash a grounder off Kody Clemens' glove that brought both runs home. Antonacci hustled it into this third double of the night, and those 90 feet mattered when Randal Grichuk foiled a righty-righty matchup three batters later with a single through the left side that made it 4-1.
Grant Taylor gave up a solo shot to the first batter he faced for the second time in the series in the top of the seventh, but the White Sox answered. Peters started it once again with a hit off a lefty, shooting a single to the right side of second with one out. Chase Meidroth, after nearly getting hit with ball four in two walks earlier in the game, took a Taylor Rogers sinker off his shin. Kyle Teel got worked over, but Edgar Quero came off the bench for Antonacci and drew a five-pitch walk to load the bases, and Miguel Vargas drew a four-pitch walk off new reliever Garrett Acton to regain the run from Lee's solo shot.
Munetaka Murakami struck out to leave them loaded, but the White Sox wouldn't be denied a payoff. The cleared the fence thrice in in the eighth, as Grichuk led off with a solo shot, Peters followed up two walks with a ground-rule double over the right-field wall, and although Chase Meidroth grounded out, Teel pushed the Sox into double digits with a three-run shot glanced off the glove of Walker Jenkins' best leap and over the center field fence.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox reached double digits in hits for the first time in nine games, and they paired their 12 hits with 10 walks, which ties a season high set one week ago. They only improved to 3-4 when walking at least eight times this season, which is curious.
*White Sox pitchers struck out a season-high 15 for the fourth time this season. The combined line: 9 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 HR, 1 BB, 15 K. Tyler Davis capped it off after two innings of Taylor.
*Eleven different White Sox reached base, with Brenton Doyle the only guy who came to the plate and came up empty, striking out on four pitches in his only trip.
*The White Sox won the season series against Minnesota 8-5, and outscored the Twins 74-44. The Twins trail by seven games now, so the tiebreaker isn't likely to factor in.
