Tough 8th inning leads to White Sox loss over Twins

Jun 19, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Chicago White Sox shortstop

(10) looks on after striking out in the seventh inning against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. The Twins won 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

All the momentum the Chicago White Sox gained during the two-game sweep against the San Francisco Giants went away on Thursday against the Minnesota Twins.

With an eighth inning that didn’t go the way of the “Good Guys,” the White Sox (35-38) ended up seeing a tied 2-2 score vanish off multiple hits and not the best pitching from Jake Petricka, resulting in a 4-2 loss. Petricka fell to 0-2 with a 2.39 ERA on the season. He allowed two earned runs on three hits and one walk in the eighth inning.

How he was left in the inning that long, as it was evident, he didn’t have his best stuff baffles me. Petricka faced seven batters, with Joe Mauer batting in Danny Santana, and Kurt Suzuki hitting a sacrifice fly to score Brian Dozier.

Jun 19, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Chicago White Sox starting pitcher

(62) delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

My thoughts are some base running, a little defense and the bullpen was the cause of this loss. That all combined to let down and lose another solid pitching effort from Jose Quintana, in what was his 15th start of the season.

Quintana (3-7) finished with seven innings of, allowing two earned runs on six hits and one walk. He struck out six with his ERA now at 3.87.

Isn’t this the story for Quintana for most of this season? Quintana had a no-decision, snapping a three-game skid of losses.

In his past 10 starts, three have been no-decisions.

The starter for the Twins was Yohan Pino who went seven innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits and one walk. He struck out seven.

Gaining the win for Minnesota was Casey Fien who pitched one inning of relief. He allowed no runs on hits, and struck out one. Glen Perkins gained his 18th save of the season.

Looking at the White Sox scoring, they had a Conor Gillaspie single to centerfield to score both Alejandro De Aza and Adam Eaton with one out. In that span, Gordon Beckham was out at third, all but stopping the rally in the top of the third.

De Aza finished 2-for-3 with one run. Eaton, Gillaspie and Jose Abreu each had one hit.

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The Twins’ (33-38) first two runs came with a Josh Willingham home run in the second inning and a Joe Mauer single to score Santana, tying the score at 2-2.

Minnesota’s 1-3 batters of Santana, Dozier and Mauer went a combined 6-for-11 with three runs, one walk and two RBIs.

For the White Sox, this was the third of 16 consecutive days of baseball, and it was the worst of three days thus far.

The White Sox with the loss are now 2-2 against the Twins this season, with this being their first visit to Target Field of the season. On the road, the White Sox are 14-20 this season.

Since this is just the first of four games this series a loss isn’t that much of a worry (though frustrating), because this was a very winnable game.