Twins 9, White Sox 6: Twins Snap Five-Game Skid Behind Tristan Gray's Grand Slam

[Matthew Taylor]

Image courtesy of © Jordan Johnson-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Joe Ryan 6 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 9 SO, 0 BB
HR: Tristan Gray (4)
Top 3 WPA: Gray 0.32, Trevor Larnach 0.24, Josh Bell 0.08
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):

The Twins desperately needed a reset Monday afternoon. After limping home from Pittsburgh on a five-game losing streak and coming off a sweep at the hands of the Pirates, Minnesota returned to Target Field looking to stop the bleeding against a White Sox club that arrived with momentum of its own. Chicago entered the series opener riding a five-game winning streak, after sweeping Detroit over the weekend.

With the Twins searching for stability, the ball was in the hands of the one starter who has consistently provided it all season. Joe Ryan took the mound as Minnesota's unquestioned ace. At a time when injuries and inconsistency have left the rotation searching for answers, Ryan has remained the one arm the Twins can count on every fifth day. They needed another strong effort from him against White Sox rookie David Sandlin, who was making just the second start of his major league career after allowing one run in his debut victory.

The Twins wasted little time making the rookie uncomfortable. Minnesota opened the bottom of the first inning by stringing together three hits, with Trevor Larnach delivering an RBI single that gave the Twins an early 1-0 advantage. The lead was short-lived, however, as Andrew Benintendi answered in the top of the second with an RBI single that tied the game.

The contest remained deadlocked until the fourth inning, when the Twins finally broke through in a big way. Josh Bell started the rally with a leadoff double, and Minnesota continued to apply pressure by putting additional runners on base. That brought Tristan Gray to the plate with the bases loaded, and the infielder delivered the game's biggest swing. Gray launched a grand slam to right-center field for his fourth home run of the season and his first since April 23. It was also his second grand slam of the year, sending Target Field into a frenzy and giving the Twins a 5-1 lead.

What looked like a comfortable advantage quickly became anything but. Ryan muscled his way through much of his outing, but ran into trouble in the fifth inning. Miguel Vargas connected for a two-run homer to trim the deficit, and Benintendi followed immediately with a solo shot of his own. Back-to-back home runs suddenly cut Minnesota's lead to 5-4 and put the pressure right back on the home club.

This time, the offense answered immediately. The Twins erupted in the bottom half of the inning, collecting three hits, drawing two walks, and pushing four runs across the plate. Austin Martin contributed an RBI single that snapped an 0-for-18 slump, and by the end of the inning, Minnesota had rebuilt its cushion to 9-4.

That offensive outburst proved critical. Ryan ultimately did not record a quality start after allowing four earned runs across six innings, but he still gave the Twins exactly what they needed. The right-hander limited further damage, completed six frames, and struck out nine hitters, matching his season high. More importantly, he kept Minnesota in position to capitalize on its best offensive performance in days.

Kody Funderburk and Yoendrys Gómez each delivered scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, preserving the lead and keeping Chicago at arm's length. The White Sox made one final push in the ninth when Vargas struck again, launching his second homer of the game, a two-run shot off Travis Adams that cut the deficit to three.

The late drama wasn't enough to spoil Minnesota's night. Powered by Gray's grand slam and a four-run answer in the fifth inning, the Twins held off the White Sox 9-6 to snap their five-game losing streak and open a seven-game homestand with a much-needed victory.

What's Next

The Twins will look to secure a series victory Tuesday evening when Connor Prielipp takes the mound seeking a bounce-back performance after consecutive rough outings. Standing in his way will be White Sox right-hander Davis Martin, who has been Chicago's most effective starter this season with a 2.00 ERA across 67 2/3 innings. First pitch from Target Field is scheduled for 6:40 PM CT.

Postgame Interview

Bullpen Usage Report

	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TOT
Paredes	0	0	0	60	0	60
Orze	0	23	0	0	0	23
Adams	12	0	0	0	19	31
Banda	14	18	0	0	0	32
Gómez	17	14	0	0	15	46
Morris	29	0	0	0	0	29
Funderburk	0	0	27	0	16	43
Rogers	7	12	0	0	0	19
Laweryson	0	16	0	0	0	16

 

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[mark allen]

bull pen is quietly real good, Most of them had a era below three for the month of May. Nice to see a lot of runs

 

[Danchat]

Tristan Gray is at 22 RBIs, 5th on the team... as expected!

[DocBauer]

I like Klein's future more than Adams. But Adams has been so yo-yo'd that I actually have ZERO idea if he's a keeper or not. He stinks, then he's good for a couple of appearances, and then he stunk this day. At some point, the Twins have to decide who has potential and who doesn't.  But yo-youing arms doesn't BUILD a solid BP.

Gray is NOT a  great ML player. But he's proven to be a solid 12th or 13th man option. It's awesome though that he's had some good clutch moments so far.

A great and much needed win!

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

With the trade for a BP arm, after giving up 2 more runs my best guess is Adams being sent back down? 

Bit of a rough start for Ryan. 

Gray with the Slam! Similar spot to his Slam in the Home Opener. 5th on the team in RBIs. He's been clutch. 

[knothole61]

49 minutes ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

With the trade for a BP arm, after giving up 2 more runs my best guess is Adams being sent back down? 

Bit of a rough start for Ryan. 

Gray with the Slam! Similar spot to his Slam in the Home Opener. 5th on the team in RBIs. He's been clutch. 

Yeah, Ryan was bitten by the White Sox home run bug--I think they score in the neighborhood of 45% of their runs on homers! The Sox are fast becoming a good team and any win over them strangely has an orgiastic feel to it. 

[Peter]

Grand slam!!! Huge much needed win!!!

[Mortimerkenny21]

Let's gain some momentum and make it two wins. Hopefully Prielipp can find his groove because his last outing against the CWS wasn't pretty with 4 Innings and 6 ER. We're going to need lots of run support again! 

[Nshore]

I have good reason to believe that LaTroy Hawkins and Grady Sizemore will get activated on the Twins roster by the end of the month.

 

[jmlease1]

Martin really needed that hit yesterday. Not a great outing for Ryan, who was too casual in his location. Nice to see the offense putting up a pile of runs though. Love it when they're pulling walks, it consistently fires their offense.

Nice bit of defense from Larnach in left. Still think they'd be better playing him in RF and Martin in LF, but Larnach has been much much better in the OF this year. I'm sure being healthy has helped a lot, but he's also worked to get in better shape and cover more ground.

[JD-TWINS]

Nice piece of hitting by Gray - hitting, what had been a pretty effective curveball was big!

Adams isn’t any better than Garcia - younger, so he may come around but he can’t be a piece of the PEN in the Show at this point.

What’s up with SWR? Has anyone claimed him? Do they bring him back via AAA? Curious on the timing of these types of transactions? LMK. Thanks!

[Glorybound]

Enjoy the Joe Ryan experience while it is here.

[Saxophone Joe]

Did anyone catch Ryan's postgame interview? He seemed to hint at communication issues with Caratani. Definitely noticed Joe was frustrated when Vic dropped that third strike with two outs in the third. 

[JD-TWINS]

Loved watching Griffin Jax pitch for the Twins - he had some bad luck occasionally but electric stuff and usually very competent!!

In ‘25, over 50 relief appearances (46 innings) for the Twins, he had a WAR of .2 and an ERA of 4.50 with a 1-5 record.

In ‘26, over 18 appearances (34 innings) for the Rays, he has a WAR of -.5 and an ERA of 4.76 with a 1-4 record.

The trade for Bradley (being part of “the big ‘25 deadline sell-off”) looks like a pretty good move.

[jorgenswest]

Ryan had 9 strike outs and no walks again. That is three such starts in a row.

The walk rates are way up this year with the ABS shrunken strike zone. Ryan is going to give up some home runs but I will take that over all of these walks we are seeing this year. 

[karcherd]

It was nice to see Gray come thru but it does not lessen the need for Culpepper.  This would make Gray the utility infielder which is a role he is more suited for.

[karcherd]

1 hour ago, Saxophone Joe said:

Did anyone catch Ryan's postgame interview? He seemed to hint at communication issues with Caratani. Definitely noticed Joe was frustrated when Vic dropped that third strike with two outs in the third. 

There is a reason Caratini has primarily been a back up catcher his whole career.  It was not a good use of resources to sign him when those dollars could have been used more efficiently, but this was a typical Falvey move.  And it will only get worse next year if they try to go into the season with him as the primary catcher.

[Saxophone Joe]

Yeah, here's what Joe said postgame, per Dan Hayes. Someone asked him a follow-up question about it and Ryan said, "It won't happen again." 

“I don’t feel like I gave enough length,” Ryan said. “There’s some things that could have gone differently and trying to mix things up when we didn’t need to be doing that and adding things in that we haven’t done all year. Just kind of changing the plan at times and it limits the innings there. I was probably in a spot to go a couple more innings. Certain things didn’t go the way we probably should have stuck to. It happens.”

PS - trying to quote the above post but new here;)

Edited Tuesday at 03:55 PM by Saxophone Joe

[LA Vikes Fan]

It may be time to get Ryan comfortable with Jackson behind the plate. He and Caratini do not seem in sync. Jackson is the better defensive catcher, at least by reputation, and may turn out to be the better hitter. 

I'd like to see more Jackson and less Caratini for a month and see what we've got in Jackson. Both could be trade chips if Jeffers isn't traded. If he is, and he should be if he isn't staying, we need to know if Jackson can be part of a catching tandem next year. Play him more now while we have the chance with Jeffers out.