Twins 9, White Sox 8 (12 innings): Only 11 more games to go

If you want to feel good about this game, you’ll only concern yourself with the top half of the line score.

In that little world, the White Sox scored eight runs, racked up 20 hits and played errorless defense. They took the lead in the 11th, and then again in the 12th.

If you want to expand it, you can look at the White Sox’ half of the box score. There you’ll see that Anderson raised his average to .336 with a 4-for-6 night, including the go-ahead solo shot in the 11th. You’ll also see three more hits for Eloy Jiménez and a pair of homers from the ninth spot, including a two-run blast by Ryan Cordell in the 12th.

The illusion caves in if you look at the pitching half, at least in extras. First, Alex Colomé’s painful regression oozed on, resulting in a blown save in the 11th as a leadoff single came around to score on a groundout, wild pitch and sac fly.

When a second save situation arose in the 12th, Rick Renteria turned to Jose Ruiz, and the results were laughable.

  1. Nelson Cruz single, 107.4 mph
  2. Eddie Rosario double, 101.7 mph
  3. Miguel Sano strikeout
  4. Marwin Gonzalez two-run single, 102.6 mph
  5. Luis Arraez single, 97,9 mph
  6. LaMonte Wade Jr. single, 101.5 mph

The game then ended with Ruiz clipping Ronald Torreyes on the forearm to shove home the winning run. The White Sox have now lost four in a row and 16 of their last 21.

Between Ruiz in the 12th and Kelvin Herrera for 1⅔ (good) innings, I assume that Jimmy Cordero had to be unavailable. There were no complaints about the results through four relievers, as Evan Marshall, Aaron Bummer, Herrera and Josh Osich combined for five scoreless innings.

The starters were as advertised. Ross Detwiler and Martin Perez both carried second-half struggles into the game, and both didn’t improve their lines much. Detwiler absorbed five-run third, which started with a Ryan LaMarre opposite-field homer and ended with a Miguel Sanó 482-foot baby-maker to the third deck. Credit Detwiler for shaking it off and lasting five with no further damage.

That’s better than Pérez fared. He gave up 10 hits over 4⅔ innings, and saw that 5-0 lead erode on his watch He gave up an RBI single to James McCann in the fourth, then a sac fly to Tim Anderson and an RBI single to Jose Abreu in the fifth.

Rocco Baldelli pulled him before he could qualify for the win, but Trevor May made it a moot point anyway. He gave up back-to-back homers on consecutive pitches to … Zack Collins? … and … Adam Engel? … and both were on 96 mph fastballs up in the zone? I don’t get it either, but it definitely happened, and it tied the game.

Bullet points:

*One knock on the offense: The White Sox struck out 14 times to just two walks. Collins drew both of them, and one was intentional.

*Another knock: They put five runners on in the ninth and 10th innings and came away scoreless. Jose Abreu grounded into a double play, and Ryan Goins popped up in a bases-loaded pinch-hitting appearance with one out in the 10th. Then again, with the way Colome’s pitching, earlier runs might not have mattered.

*Sergio Romo tried to pick off Yolmer Sanchez more than a dozen times after Sánchez reached on a bunt in the eighth inning. The frame ended with Romo screaming his head off after striking out Engel, and Jason Benetti and Steve Stone spent the rest of the night confused.

*Leury García didn’t throw home on the game-tying sac fly in the 11th, then made a weird, sidearmed throw home in the 12th that was fast enough to prevent the send home.

*Adding injury to insult, Dylan Covey was scratched from his start in the finale. Iván Nova will throw an inning instead. But hey, maybe the Sox will be trying the opener by accident?

Record: 65-86 | Box score | Highlights

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PauliePaulie

Hope Collins gets a fair shot at the strong side of a DH platoon in 2020.

ImmortalTimeTravelMan

Unless they think he’s going to turn a major corner I’d rather trade him and Luis Gonzalez for Joc Pedersen 

burning-phoneix

I literally turned off the game when I saw Jose Ruiz get in the game. Glad I didn’t waste my time.

lil jimmy

Watching Romo play catch with the First Baseman. Now that is a waste of your time.

iowasox1971

It’s not very easy to blow a game like that. A team that doesn’t care about winning will find a way to lose this type of contest, and that’s what happened here.

Wouldn’t be surprised at all if we ended up with 95 losses. This organization is so accustomed to tanking, it doesn’t know how to win.

Eleven games left. Will we win any of them?

I doubt that cable and satellite services are beating down the door to carry the NBC Sports Chicago network that, without the Cubs next season, will feature three non-playoff teams: The White Sox, the Bulls and the Blackhawks. This Sox skid couldn’t have come at a worse time for the network and those three teams. I hope I’m wrong, but a lot of us might not be able to see games on TV next year anyhow.

burning-phoneix

It’s because half our bullpen is hopeless lol, not anything deep lmao

>Eleven Games left will we win any of them

Considering 7 of them are against the Kitties, Yeah I think so.

SkeeterSkeeterman

Baby-maker … is good

As Cirensica

I fell sleep in the 11th with Colome on the mound and the White Sox winning, and now I wake up to read this and I am not entirely shocked at all. What a shitty team.

asinwreck

Things could be worse. Imagine being a Pirates fan.

knoxfire30

Their clubhouse is trash but they also went to the playoffs 3 years in a row pretty recently.

lil jimmy

I doubt that is a comfort to them.

knoxfire30

Every walk of life has horrific people. Politicians, Athletes, Actors, Hedge Funds, Teachers… etc etc.

Sports is entertainment I doubt 80 year old suffering cub fans cared too much that their closer beat his fiance when they were celebrating a world series

karkovice squad

The Sox looked past Myers’ history when they traded for him but don’t have the championship to excuse the expediency.

knoxfire30

It is what it is, myers, wil cordero, jose canseco, lot of rumors about other guys…

At some point or another pro sports teams are gonna employ some sketchy characters .

These players arent raising my kids or serving as my moral superiors. They are simply playing a kids game I love more than I should because thats what I value as entertainment.

Trooper Galactus

If the White Sox ever sign a guy like Chapman or Russell I’ll legitimately be unable to root for them. Heck, it was hard for me to root for Melky just based on his big PED suspension.

karkovice squad

“At least my team doesn’t employ a known child predator” is small consolation.

Trooper Galactus

One of the few things I’ve been able to take pride in as a White Sox fan is that, in general, they’ve largely avoided most of the big shitbags out there (though I’m sure price has something to do with a lot of that). Meatheads abounded in the Sale/LaRoche/Eaton/Lawrie era, but pretty sure none of those guys was convicted sex offenders.

andyfaust

Sergio Romo. I haven’t been that annoyed with an opposing reliever since crazy Grant Balfour.