Twins 4, White Sox 0: More of the same

The White Sox (76-78) offense had a night to forget, and the Twins (75-79) won the first game of the series handily.

The White Sox struggled immensely against Twins starter Bailey Ober. Sharp contact was difficult to come by, especially in the first three innings. Ober retired all nine he faced the first time through the order, and he collected four strikeouts during that time. The closest the White Sox came to scoring early on was in the first, when José Abreu launched a 396-footer to center. Unfortunately, center fielder Mark Contreras made a nice play on the deep fly ball.

Meanwhile, things were easier for the Twins offense against Lance Lynn. José Miranda, Gio Urshela, and Jake Cave opened the bottom of the second with three consecutive singles. Cave’s single was enough to drive in Miranda, and the Twins had a 1-0 lead. Still leading by one in the third, Luis Arráez led off with a double, and Miranda drove him in with a double of his own. That made it 2-0, and with the way the White Sox offense performed, that lead was safe.

With one out in the fourth, Yoán Moncada crushed a deep drive off the wall in right-center field. That broke up Ober’s perfect game that lasted through the first 10 outs. However, the White Sox failed to get on the board, even though Eloy Jiménez squared up a fastball for a loud out to end the threat.

By the end of the sixth inning, Ober had racked up nine strikeouts, and he had not issued any walks. Also, the White Sox only made him throw 68 pitches up to that point. The issue of not making opposing pitchers throw enough pitches is nothing new from the 2022 team. By contrast, although Lynn only allowed two runs in the first five innings, he needed 95 pitches to get through them. As a result, he was unable to make it deep into this game.

In the sixth, the Twins put the game away. Lynn narrowly missed low on a 3-2 slider to Gary Sánchez for a leadoff walk. Three pitches later, Lynn threw a fastball down the middle to Matt Wallner, who hit a towering fly ball that was just deep enough to clear the right-field wall. That was an interesting blast, as it left the bat at 113.8 mph, but it had a sky-high launch angle of 45 degrees. It only went 341 feet, but it still gave the Twins a 4-0 lead, and that was it for Lynn. His final line was as follows: five-plus innings, four runs (all earned), 10 hits, one walk, and three strikeouts in 104 pitches.

Aaron Bummer retired all three batters he faced, and Vince Velasquez retired all six he faced, striking out five. Despite those strong performances, though, the White Sox came up short. The South Siders finished with two hits, one walk, 14 strikeouts, and zero runs.

The White Sox will be back in action tomorrow against the Twins. That game is scheduled to start at 6:40 p.m. Central. Johnny Cueto and Josh Winder are the probable starters, and NBC Sports Chicago and WMVP 1000 AM will cover the game. We hope to see you then, but if not, we would not blame you.