Twins 6, White Sox 3: The end of the Robin Ventura era

The last game of the Robin Ventura era stands as a monument to the era: a mostly quiet loss, with a little bit of Pissed Sale in there. The White Sox manager announced his departure to the media after the game.

Chris Sale’s personal-best 32nd start was doomed from the get-go, as Leury Garcia misplayed a Byron Buxton flyball, then crashed into the wall to facilitate an inside-the-park homer and a 1-0 lead one batter in during the last game at U.S. Cellular Field. (It’ll be Guaranteed Rate Field next year.)

While that one was hard to pin on Sale, the Condor took Minnesota’s four-run third personally. Four of the first five reached, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the out was a sacrifice fly, and the fourth was a three-run Miguel Sano homer that gave the Twins a 5-0 lead that was never really threatened. Sale ramped it up to 98 later in the inning, throwing behind a Twins left-handed batter in one of his classic Pissed Sale arm-side misses. After the inning, he slammed his glove against the dugout wall.

Sale rebounded with two scoreless innings to save some face. He finished the year 17-10 with a 3.34 ERA and 238 strikeouts over a career-high 226⅔ innings.

In other milestones, Jose Abreu collected his 100th RBI in the third inning, stroking a line drive to left center for a run-scoring single with two outs.

The Sox tried to scratch their way back in it, but they could only score with runs traded for outs. Adam Eaton scored on a Melky Cabrera groundout in the seventh, and Avisail Garcia on an Omar Naravez groundout in the eighth.

Brandon Kintzler retired the side in the ninth to bring the season to the close, which sent the media down to the conference room to hear Ventura’s farewell message. He refused to blame anybody but himself.

Record: 78-84 | Box score | Highlights