Twins 5, White Sox 4: A Juan Minaya meltdown

A followed-from-work bullet-point recap:

*After surviving a couple of close calls in his first three save situation, Juan Minaya couldn’t avoid utter ruin in today’s game. He came out in the ninth inning after an Alen Hanson solo homer put the Sox ahead, but proceeded to throw just 11 of his 24 pitches for strikes.

Minaya gave up a leadoff single to Ehire Adrianza, wasted a gift of a botched sac bunt by walking Brian Dozier, then gave up a game-tying single to Eddie Rosario. He then walked Joe Mauer to load the bases, and when it looked like he might escape with a tie game, drilled Max Kepler with a slider for the Homer Simpson limp-off HBP.

*The last White Sox pitcher to end a game on an HBP? John Buzhardt, who plunked Bert Campaneris in a 4-3 loss to the Kansas City Athletics on June 30, 1965.

*The fact that this game was tied at 3 was somewhat remarkable given the lineup the White Sox rolled out. Matt Davidson played first and batted cleanup, and Rob Brantly hit sixth as the DH.

*Then again, 44-year-old Bartolo Colon pitched for Minnesota, so perhaps the quality of the lineup didn’t matter. All the struggling Sox contributed to a 2-0 lead in the second, as Brantly singled home Davidson, and Adam Engel doubled home Brantly.

*Miguel Gonzalez met the minimum for another quality start, although he blew a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning by giving up three doubles over the span of five batters, including one by the freshly minted Sox-killer Polanco.

*With all the fifth-stringers in the Sox lineup, of course the only one without a hit was Leury Garcia, who went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts.

*The sweep seals a 7-12 record against the Twins, which is the first of the AL season series to come to a close.

Record: 52-80 | Box score