Twins win, 5-3

Well, the biggest news from this game turned out to be the premature end to the season for Lucas Giolito, who has a mild lat strain.

But in the main event of the day, the White Sox lost to the Twins, 5-3.

And the team lost in decidedly White Sox, and 2019, fashion, running their way out of big innings, pitching their way out of leads, and generally just not measuring up as a team assured of even the 70 wins they’re now on pace to finish the season with.

In the first inning, Chicago struck fast against Minnesota ace José Berríos: Three pitches in, Leury García singled and Yoán Moncada doubled him to third base. But when José Abreu nudged a 1-2 liner out to center field, García scored, but Moncada ... did this:

Instead of one out and a runner still in scoring position, with smoking-hot cleanup hitter Eloy Jiménez coming to the plate, the bases were empty, two outs, crisis averted for Minny.

You can credit Yoán’s aggressiveness there, but he was clearly caught off of second base and had to scramble back to tag, negating any real hope of a successful tag-up on a short duck snort to center. Even if the throw had gone all the way home, a clean catch-and-throw would still have gotten Moncada.

Anyway, this is not to roast Moncada (although he was also picked off of first base after his second hit of the game), who has been the White Sox’s most valuable position player this season.

But with the way Reynaldo López has pitched for all but a half-dozen games this season, a 1-0 lead wasn’t going to hold up (nor was a 2-0 lead, provided in the second when James McCann homered). And, sure enough, it didn’t.

López would let in three runs on his watch, and another two came on his tab courtesy of Jace Fry after ReyLo failed to get out of the sixth inning. Final line for the frustrating starter: 5 ¹⁄₃ innings, nine hits, five earned, two Ks, two walks. Any hope of López whittling his ERA to below 5.00 with his last two starts of the season is effectively over.

Hopes of the White Sox getting to 70 wins also seem to be dwindling. What seemed a foregone conclusion 20 games ago is not in true jeopardy after a horrendous stretch in September. Chicago needs to go 5-7 the rest of the way to reach 70 wins, and unfortunately, only seven of those games are against the howlingly-bad Detroit Tigers.

We thought it was a given that the White Sox would avoid 100 losses last year, too, remember.

Tomorrow night, it’s Ross Detwiler pitching for his MLB future in subbing for Giolito, gametime 6:40 p.m.