CHICAGO — The Twins entered an important week against Cleveland and Chicago tied with the Indians and a game behind the White Sox.
They ended the week further solidified in the No. 2 spot in their division — which could still lend them home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs — but still trailing the White Sox, now by three games in the American League Central rather than just one.
The Twins concluded their seven-game stretch with a 4-3 loss to the White Sox, losing three of the four games they played at Guaranteed Rate Field this week. The Twins are still on track to clinch a playoff berth, likely this weekend, though the odds of winning the division are now slim with eight games left in the regular season.
The Twins (31-21) fell behind in the seventh inning after leading on and off for much of the game. Early in the seventh, they had an opportunity to double off Jarrod Dyson after Nick Madrigal lined to right, but Max Kepler’s throw was off target. Dyson wound up being the tying run when Jose Abreu beat out an infield single later in the inning.
Right after that, left fielder Eloy Jimenez socked a double off Sergio Romo to plate the go-ahead run for the White Sox (33-17).
“That’s a tough swing,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The way it happened to play out was also tough, but they made something happen. The ball was put in play with a guy in scoring position. Obviously, we couldn’t make that play.”
The Twins had been protecting a one-run lead since the sixth inning when Josh Donaldson blasted the third home run of the game off White Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez.
Donaldson had been upset with home-plate umpire Dan Bellino after a strike call earlier in the at-bat, and Baldelli had come out to try to defuse the situation.
It didn’t work.
As the third baseman crossed home, he kicked dirt across the plate. He then took a couple of steps toward the dugout before returning to kick more dirt over the plate and having words with Bellino, earning himself his seventh career ejection.
“Josh’s emotions got the best of him, and his frustration did get the best of him,” Baldelli said. “Does he have gripes on some of those pitches? Yeah. But that is part of baseball and something we all have to adjust to, both players and staff and everybody involved, and the umpires do, too.”
Donaldson’s home run was one of five solo homers in the game. Two came off the bat of Byron Buxton, who finished the series with four home runs. Buxton has now homered in six of his past nine games, and he said before the game that he felt he had been seeing the ball well and staying aggressive.
Buxton’s two home runs were countered by two game-tying home runs from White Sox hitters, who did their only damage off Kenta Maeda via the long ball. Maeda gave up a home run to Abreu in the fourth inning that Buxton made a leaping attempt at but couldn’t snag, and one to Edwin Encarnacion an inning later. Maeda said both were sliders with similar movement that stayed very flat.
The Twins starter said he felt he was able to get into a rhythm early, but he said he didn’t have the best command throughout his start. Maeda gave up just those two runs in five innings, striking out eight and taking a no-decision as the game-deciding action came in the seventh after his departure.
“It didn’t feel like we went out there and simply didn’t make good pitches or simply didn’t make plays we definitely should have made,” Baldelli said. “It was an inning that just played out where they were able to pull ahead and it was a tight ballgame. That’s the difference in some of these ballgames where we’re going to have to bring it to them instead of hoping that things play out your way.”
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September 18, 2020 at 06:33AM
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Twins lose series finale to White Sox, drop three games back in AL Central - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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