Written By Brandon Warne
Jerry Sands home run in the seventh inning provided all White Sox starter Carlos Rodon needed on a night where a listless Twins offense mustered just four hits in a 3-0 loss.
In a lot of ways, it was vintage Phil Hughes at display in Target Field on display as he and Rodon engaged in a back-and-forth battle on Wednesday night. Hughes pounded the strike zone while Rodon was effectively wild as neither team had a hit until Joe Mauer singled in the bottom of the third inning. But when Hughes went to the well with a cutter — a pitch he had fanned Sands with twice already on the night — on more time, the White Sox’ DH made him pay with a 409-foot home run to the berm in dead center field. “I had gotten him twice with it,” Hughes said, “But that last time I yanked it, and he ran into it.”
Hughes had been rolling up to that point, including working out of danger when Melky Cabrera’s single to right was followed by a laser double to the left-center gap by Brett Lawrie. To the untrained eye, Cabrera looked like he would score easily, but third base coach Joe McEwing held him up. With runners on second and third, Hughes bore down to freeze Sands on an 0-2 cutter. He ran the count full after going up 0-2 on Alex Avila and ultimately struck him out with a 93-mph fastball, and finally induced a weak grounder to third base from Austin Jackson to dance out of danger.
The White Sox broke through in the sixth, when Adam Eaton and Jimmy Rollins singled to put runners on the corners. Hughes induced a rarely-seen double play grounder off the bat of Jose Abreu to put the Sox up 1-0, and got Todd Frazier to ground out to Trevor Plouffe to close out the inning.
In the decisive seventh, Joe Mauer made a nice play to snare a liner off the bat of Cabrera before Lawrie singled and Sands homered to wrap up the scoring.
The Twins threatened at times, but never put forth a consistent enough offensive effort. Even on a night in which they had just four hits, the Twins littered the bases with five walks — all issued by Rodon. Between bunts that didn’t create sustainable rallies and lack of execution with two outs, in some ways it felt like the Twins were down 10-0 late instead of 3-0. Fans responded thusly, as the crowd of 21,008 largely filed to the gates after Kurt Suzuki popped up three times in the same plate appearance, finishing with a foul out to Frazier to strand two runners in scoring position after Eddie Rosario had bunted Sano, who had walked, and Plouffe, who had singled, up a base apiece.
On a night where the game-time temperature at first pitch was 68 degrees, it sure seemed like fans couldn’t get out quick enough. Unfortunately, that was also true of the Twins offense.
Notes
The Twins joined the 0-8 Braves — who lost earlier in the night — as the first teams to reach that record since the 2010 Houston Astros, who finished 76-86 that season.
Hughes has not walked a batter since Sept. 15, 2015 against Detroit — a five-start span.
Mauer’s two-hit game pushed him to 1,708 career hits, five shy of Harmon Killebrew for fifth in club history.
Lawrie hit a foul ball in the top of the ninth inning that landed on top of the Budweiser Roof Deck.
Aside from Sands’ home run, he was 1-for-4 overall with three strikeouts.
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