White Sox (55-47): 6
Twins (44-58): 7

Alexei has trouble with a groundball. It turned out to be costly later. (Jesse Johnson-US PRESSWIRE)

De Aza welcomed himself back to the lineup by reminding us how valuable he is in the number one spot. He worked De Vries deep into the count before earning himself a base hit. After Paul Konerko and Alex Rios both notched hits, the former of which scored De Aza for the first run of the game, A.J. Pierzynski did some self-welcoming back as well. He took the first pitch he saw and promptly deposited it in the seats to give the Sox a 4-0 lead. As it would turn out, a short lived 4-0 lead; the Twins had a big first planned for themselves too, bringing their 4 in via a flurry of base hits.

From there the game slowed down, the Twins added a pair in the 3rd while the Sox spaced out a pair, bringing 1 run in both the 4th and the 8th. Jose Quintana, despite having given up 6 runs (only 4 were earned) in his first 3 innings managed to hang in the game through the 7th, saving his line on the night from being a nightmare.

Bottom of the 9th, execution bit the Sox. Brett Myers gave up a lead-off hit to Danny Valencia and when Brian Dozier laid down the sacrifice bunt, A.J. was unable to make the throw to first and it shot into right field, setting up a second and third with no outs situation. Jamie Carroll sent a fly ball out to Alex Rios and Alexi Casilla, pinch running for Valencia scored the winning run.

Plus: A very gutty performance out of the 23 year-old Jose Quintana. Giving up the big runs early it’s easy to let the fire burn but Quintana managed to not only hang in there and save the bullpen but keep the Twins off the board in the process, enabling the White Sox to edge their way back in the game.

Minus: It was again an Alexei Ramirez error that had the Sox giving up unnecessary runs. Again on a play that should be made, it makes one wonder it’s not starting to creep into Alexei’s head making it more difficult for him to convert on the easy plays. Ramirez remains one of the finer defensive shortstops in the game, so we can only hope that he shakes it off and continues to be.

Player of the Game
Alejandro De Aza – .390 Win Expectancy added

Source: FanGraphs

Let the Twins fans worry. They’re sending Cole De Vries to the mound. De Vries made his MLB debut against the White Sox this season, he gave up 3 runs in 5 innings that day. Sure, he’s had some good games. I know he went to Texas and shut them out over 7 innings. But you know what? The Twins lost that game. Nothing to worry about, nothing at all. The offense is back, the offense is strong. The White Sox, they have lots of runs they’d like to score. Nooo problem. We are in our cave, we are looking for our power animal. Power lead the charge last night, power can lead the charge tonight. No, not a problem at all.

1. De Aza – CF
2. Youkilis – 3B
3. Dunn – DH
4. Paulie – 1B
5. Rios – RF
6. Alexei – SS
7. Dayan – LF
8. Flowers – C
9. Gordo – 2B

If Tyler Flowers goes 1-5 he raises his average. I hope he doesn’t find that to be too stressful a goal. I’m trying to relax here the last thing I want is to burden another with my thought process.

Twins (15-29): 8
White Sox (23-22): 11

Philip Humber cruised into the 5th inning where he experienced some trouble that would render him unable to complete the frame. He would be charged with all 4 Twins runs in the inning, including a Joe Mauer HR that was only his second of the year. With Humber’s night ending so early the bullpen would step up and allow the Sox to take advantage of a live field. Exceptions being two blasts by Justin Morneau, the first of which were into the shrubs in center field.

The Sox end of the long ball party was started early by A.J. Pierzynski with a direct assist from the wind. He floated a fly ball up the right field line that never stopped floating. In the bottom of the 5th Alejandro De Aza thought he had one down the same line, but after an umpire review the HR call is reversed and Alejandro would end up striking out looking. He was not phased.

As the Sox trailed by one in the 6th, Paul Konerko lead off with dinger, bringing his batting average up to .384 by night’s end. Alex Rios made it a back-to-back to take the lead and after the bases were loaded, Alejandro De Aza exacted his revenge in the form of a grand slam to right center field. Dayan Viciedo would add a towering shot in the 8th and there you have it. A lot of wind in a live ballpark and good things can happen.

Plus: Maddux and Glavine will tell you, chicks dig the long ball. On a night like tonight Sox fans all dig it too. The power bats have been working a lot in the past week for the Sox. Let’s be that team that relies on the big blast to win games, I don’t mind.

Minus: On a night when we learned that we are going to be without the services of one of our starting pitchers for a short while, it’s not refreshing to watch Philip Humber fail to go deep into the game.

Tipping Point:
The Alex Rios HR that completed the back-to-back was worth a 17.6% shift in win expectancy, edging out his double earlier in the game which was worth 17.1%. Safe to say that Alex Rios had a good game.

Source: FanGraphs