CHICAGO – The Twins arrived at Guaranteed Rate Field with such high hopes. Take a couple from the White Sox, use that as a takeoff point and build momentum.
The hosts had other ideas.
Chicago completed a three-game sweep of the Twins with a 8-5 victory Thursday during which they got off to a fast start against Twins righthander Jose Berrios, withstood a midgame rally then, as they did all week and all season, got their licks in against the bullpen.
It was Chicago's first sweep of the Twins at home since May of 2016. It could have been a four-game sweep, but the first game on Monday was rained out and rescheduled to be played in July.
Chicago leads the season series 8-1 while outscoring the Twins 76-37. The White Sox batted .356 against a beleaguered Twins pitching staff.
The Twins fell to 14½ games behind the AL Central-leading Sox.
Thursday offered the Twins their best chance to win with Berrios on the mound. But he had to get out of a two on, one out mess in the first then gave up a leadoff home run to Brian Goodwin in the second. Something was off, and the numbers showed it.
In five innings, Berrios gave up 10 hits and walked one. He failed to strike out a single batter. He got swings and misses on only five of the 89 pitches he threw. The White Sox had five lefthanded hitters in the lineup on Sunday, knowing that opponents have a robust .870 on base-plus-slugging percentage against Berrios from that side as opposed to .476 for righthanded hitters.
