Finally, the White Sox have crossed over from the teens to the twenties with a 5-3 win against the Minnesota Twins.
This win puts the White Sox ahead of the Kansas City Royals in the AL Central and keeps them ahead of the Baltimore Orioles in overall AL play.
What the AL Central looks like
The Royals and Sox are only a half of a game apart from each other, with the same win-loss percentage of .339. But, the Royals get last place because they have 41 losses to their 21 wins while the Sox have 39 losses and 20 wins. The Orioles are 19-41 with a win percentage of .317.
The Central is still the worst division in the AL, but it is competitive with the divisions in the NL, especially the NL West where the top team has a .525 win-loss percentage. The Indians are leading the AL Central with a .533 percentage.
Getting that 20th win
After splitting the doubleheader on Tuesday, the Sox clearly took over in the single game on Wednesday evening against the Twins. The Twins got an early lead with a run scored in the second inning, but the Sox tied it up in the fourth. The Twins took the lead in the bottom of the fourth, but the Sox earned four runs in the sixth and maintained the lead until the end.
The pitching was good
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Hector Santiago got his second win of the season, putting his record at 2-2. He pitched five innings and gave up two runs off of six hits. He struck out two and walked three. His ERA is now 4.96. Three relievers earned holds in the game, Bruce Rondon, Jace Fry, and Nate Jones. Joakim Soria earned his sixth save of the year. The bullpen has been rather reliable of late and in Wednesday’s game did not give up any runs and only allowed four Twins to reach base. They struck out a combined eight batters in their four innings.
Offensive strengths
On the offensive side, several Sox players contributed to the score. But, Tim Anderson had the best day. He batted sixth and went 2-4 with three RBIs. Unfortunately, he did strikeout twice and he left two runners on base, but his work accounted for 60% of the runs scored on the day. He crossed home plate once.
Kevan Smith also had a good day. He batted fifth and went 2-4 with one run scored. It looks like the Sox are planning on keeping Smith around as they reportedly outrighted Alfredo Gonzalez according to MLB Trade Rumors.
Next: White Sox draft Nick Madrigal in 1st round
The Sox finish their series against the Twin on Thursday with an afternoon game before heading off to Boston to face the Red Sox at Fenway. James Shields faces Jose Berrios in Minneapolis. At worst, the Sox could split the four-game series. But, a third win against the Twinkies would be a nice ending instead.