Out of the slop, to end up on top: Sox beat Twinkies, 8-5
The opening game of the series in Twinkieland had a TV intro about Chicago and Minneapolis that had to have been written, produced, and voiced by a team that had just downed a case of Red Bull. The piece was so over the top it was under the bottom.
Which is about how the game started out. It sure looked like neither team wanted the burden of winning and all the annoying media attention that might follow.
But, all's well that ends well, and all that. And the end was 8-5 Sox.
After an uneventful inning and a half, with Lucas Giolito in less than no-hitter form, the Sox D, so good all season, went to F. Three — count 'em, three — errors in the bottom of the second, from unexpected sources.
Adam Engel let a single roll right on through the wickets to give runners a chance to stretch their legs. Nick Madrigal decided the way to start a double play was to toss the ball to Eloy Jiménez in left. Then Giolito took a dribbler and showed off his basketball skills by dribbling it some more.
That led to three Minnesota runs, two unearned. A Miguel Sanó homer in the third made it 4-0 — but help was on the way.
Rich Hill, who had pretty much coasted through the first three innings, in the fourth showed why his middle names should be Over The. The 40-year old crafty lefty turned craftless and issued three walks to open the inning, and Engel showed him that was a bad idea by singling two runs home. That ended Hill''s night.
All told, the Twins staff showed good ol' northern hospitality by issuing six walks to the Sox. And we all know it's damned near impossible to get the Sox to walk even once or twice, so we're well aware how hard they had to work to accomplish that feat.
At that point, the game went from being total slop on both sides to being pretty interesting, and downright tense.
Giolito, who had made 87 pitches in four innings, got through a seven-pitch fifth and turned it over to the pen. Notably, he struck out arch-nemesis Nelson Cruz three times.
The big Sox fourth inning started a comeback which was completed in the sixth, against Tyler Clippard. Yes, that's right, he's still in the majors — they treat their old folks right up in lumberjack land. Clippard gave up singles to Nomar Mazara, who pinch-hit for Engel, and Madrigal, and José Abreu doubled them home to make it 4-4.
The tie was short-lived, as a leadoff walk by Codi Heuer came around on a Jake Cave single to put the Twins up, 5-4. That lead in turn vanished, when this happened:
Luis Robert knocked one to Duluth, or 449 feet, whichever comes first, and the game was tied, 5-5.
The pens kept things quiet until the top of the ninth, when Max Kepler, who apparently wanted to apologize for being hard on the Sox for many years, decided to drop a routine Edwin Encarnación fly ball. That led to another chance for No. 88.
Robert's double made it 6-5, and Mazara made the final 8-5 with a two-run single to right — off a lefty after another battling at-bat, no less. Alex Colomé picked up the save with help from a nice grab by Mazara on a Jorge Polanco line shot to end the game.
The bottom part of the order did most of the damage, getting nine of the 11 Sox hits. Hitting wasn't all that timely (4-for-20 with RISP), but with the help of all those walks and Kepler's error, it was enough.
The top of the order really stunk for the Twins, 0-for-16, with eight of the team's 13 Ks. Kepler was 0-for-5, so, with his incredible error — you've never seen a more routine fly ball — like Lucy Arnaz, he's got some 'splaining to do.
Tuesday's game will be Dallas Keuchel vs. Michael Pineda, making his first appearance of the season, fresh off a 60-game drug suspension that started in 2019.
And, oh, yeah — Cleveland lost to the Royals, so the Sox are alone atop the AL Central.