Make It Official! Twins 13, White Sox 7: Twins Jump Out Early, Hold On for Sweep

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Simeon Woods Richardson: 4 IP 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB 6 K (89 Pitches, 54 Strikes, 60.6%)
Home Runs: Royce Lewis (13)
Bottom 3 WPA: Max Kepler (.125), José Miranda (.094), Woods Richardson (.075)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

With the Guardians and Royals playing quite well of late, it was imperative that the Twins take advantage of a sad, hopeless, dysfunctional White Sox team. They took the first two games, despite both contests being oddly close for the first seven and a half innings. But never fear, the gods provided an offering in the form of Chris Flexen. He's a perfectly reasonable (I didn't say good) major-league pitcher most days, but not today, with his team riding a 19-game losing streak.

It looked like Flexen might squeeze out of trouble in the first. Willi Castro singled, but was quickly picked off of first, and Trevor Larnach swung through a middle-middle fastball shortly after that to record the second out of the inning. Byron Buxton, who entered the game 8-11 against Flexen, walked, as did Royce Lewis behind him. Max Kepler then dribbled a grounder to the second base side, but rookie infielder Brooks Baldwin botched it and everyone was safe, including Buxton speeding home from second base. José Miranda then scorched a liner up the middle to score Lewis and make the score 2-0.

Simeon Woods Richardson struggled his last time out, failing to complete four innings against a hot Mets lineup. Today, his command was an issue from the start, as he walked leadoff man Miguel Vargas. After a couple of strikeouts, he allowed a single to Andrew Vaughn and walked Lenyn Sosa to load the bases. He coaxed a groundout from Andrew Benintendi, though, to end the threat.

It's hard to gauge a pitcher's performance when a lineup includes just two or three MLB-caliber hitters. For example, Woods Richardson retired Nick Senzel, Nicky Lopez, and Korey Lee in order in the second. He was having trouble locating his slider and fastball, but White Sox hitters were happy to let him get away with it, at least for a while.

The Twins were not so kind to Flexen in the second. After a leadoff walk from Austin Martin, Christian Vázquez flied out to deep left center. Castro roped a double down the left-field line to score him, and then scored on a single to the gap from Trevor Larnach. Buxton was working the count, and I looked down at my laptop for a moment before hearing the loudest sound I think I have ever heard a bat make, as Buxton obliterated a fastball 113 MPH to left field. If Benintendi had had time to react, he may have been able to jump and catch it, since the ball was hit barely ten feet off the ground at any point.*

*Sidenote: Does anyone look less interested in playing baseball right now than Benintendi? There were two or three plays in this series on which he could have dived to record an out, but chose not to, including Castro's single in the first that nearly landed on his foot. Then, in the fifth, he nearly homered off of Cole Sands, but instead, the ball got stuck underneath the padding in right-center, which to any moderately engaged player means an automatic triple. But he just coasted into second looking like he was in line at the bank.

Royce Lewis then launched a fastball the other way for a three-run home run to make the score 7-0. Following another single from Miranda, Matt Wallner demolished a sweeper from new pitcher, lefty Sammy Peralta 407 feet off the high wall in right center for a triple to score Miranda.

SWR wasn't going to find his command just because he was given a lead, and gave up three runs over the next two innings, as White Sox hitters sat on his fastball and hit line drives all over the park. He was only able to get through four innings, allowing nine baserunners in the process. If Zebby Matthews were pitching better in Triple A (he's not, don't look it up), I might suggest some sort of manufactured IL stint for SWR to give him a blow and to see what Matthews has. As it stands, the Twins will have to stick with SWR and hope the encouraging signs from David Festa are legitimate. Otherwise we may get a dose of the 2021-2022 Twins, where the front of the rotation needed to be perfect not just to win games, but to save the bullpen from their inevitable overuse in relief of the back of the rotation.

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The Twins' at-bats deteriorated once Flexen left the game, chasing quite a few pitches and making outs early in counts. While they cruised along, the White Sox got three runs back against SWR and Benintendi took Jorge Alcala deep with a man on to cut the lead to three in the seventh.

 Fortunately, the White Sox turned to former Twins farmhand Prelander Berroa in the bottom half of the seventh. After retiring Miranda, he walked Wallner and Martin, then allowed a sharp single off of Lopez's glove to load the bases for Castro. A wild pitch from new pitcher, lefty Fraser Ellard, brought home Wallner and Castro drew a walk to reload the bags. Ryan Jeffers pinch hit and delivered a sacrifice fly to score the Twins' tenth run.

The White Sox continued to make it interesting, with Robert Jr. and Vaughn (the aforementioned two major league caliber hitters the White Sox feature) hitting run scoring doubles off of Randy Dobnak, who had decent stuff, but was too often in the middle of the zone.

The Twins added three more runs in the eighth on a bases-loaded walk from Vazquez and a two run single from Castro.

Trends:
(My general vibe about each player following today's game, based on zero inside information)

Notes: Buxton slammed into the high wall in right-center in the sixth, saving a run for Cole Sands and ending the inning, but was taken out of the game the next inning. He did not head into the clubhouse and remained in the dugout. After playing the first two games of the series, it's possible he may have gotten the day off had the Twins not been facing Flexen.

The Twins drew a total of nine walks, including three from Wallner.

What’s Next: David Festa (1-2, 6.98 ERA) starts for the Twins on Monday as they start a brief road trip against the other Chicago team, the Cubs. Kyle Hendricks (3-9, 6.86 ERA) goes for the northsiders as they play out the string on a lost season that began with some hope to contend in the NL Central. Hendricks has long been a poor man's Greg Maddux, baffling hitters with excellent command and diving offspeed pitches despite sitting in the mid 80's with his fastball velocity. However, similar to old friend Dallas Keuchel, he lost a few extra ticks off the fastball as he got into his mid-30's and just doesn't have enough to keep hitters honest, resulting in a dreadful 2024 season.

Postgame Interviews:

Bullpen Usage Chart: