Opportunity knocks, but Twins 'just didn't get the job done'

CHICAGO -- It was a golden opportunity for the Twins to take the lead, or, even better, break things open. And with the middle of their order up, they liked their chances.

“A lot,” Byron Buxton said.

Instead, a bases-loaded, no-out chance in the seventh inning Wednesday turned into a major missed opportunity in a 6-4 loss to the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Locked in a 4-all tie, the Twins looked poised to get at least one run in the seventh, and the ball was rolling their way. Here’s how the frame started:

• No. 9 hitter Ryan Jeffers led off the inning with a ground-ball single to right field.
• Leadoff man Max Kepler reached on a single to the largely vacated left side of the infield.
• Jorge Polanco reached on a bunt single when White Sox pitcher Gregory Santos slipped and fell to the ground.

That brought the heart of Minnesota’s order to the plate, starting with Carlos Correa and Buxton who, just a few innings prior, hit back-to-back doubles that helped erase an early 3-0 White Sox lead. Here’s how the inning played out from there:

• Correa grounded into a fielder’s choice; Tim Anderson threw out Jeffers at the plate.
• Buxton grounded back to the mound; Santos threw out Kepler at the plate.
• Trevor Larnach worked an eight-pitch at-bat before striking out to end the threat.

“[We] didn’t get the job done, so definitely a letdown,” Buxton said of the seventh. “But that’s the chances we want, especially coming up in that situation. Just didn’t get the job done. Simple as that.”

But it also was hardly the only costly moment or one where things didn’t go the Twins' way -- in a game they fell behind 3-0 in the first inning.

Said manager Rocco Baldelli: “There were probably four to five moments in the game where it felt like -- we don’t make excuses -- but it felt like no matter, really, what was going on, there were things that were taking place that some of them were very much in our control. Some of them weren’t. But we couldn’t flip it. Some of them were very apparent but some of them were self-inflicted. There’s no one to blame. We can look in the mirror today and say we just needed more from ourselves. That’s really everywhere you look.”

That includes a baserunning mistake in the fourth by Jeffers, who was caught stealing at third base on a ball in the dirt that White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal blocked and kept in front of him.

The Twins had two on and two out in that spot for Polanco, with Correa on deck and Buxton in the hole, and Dylan Cease had thrown eight consecutive balls. Whether or not they would have scored in that spot, the caught-stealing let Cease off the hook. Minnesota challenged the call, which stood.

“We have Cease on the ropes and he’s not throwing strikes, and obviously we run into an out unnecessarily,” Baldelli said. “He’s struggling. He threw a lot of balls in a row. The last thing you want to do is help them. We have good hitters at the plate. They’re coming up. That was a tough one.”

Having lost their challenge, the Twins couldn’t challenge another close caught-stealing call. Willi Castro was thrown out at second in the sixth on a play that would have been worth a second look.

And then, back to the seventh. Griffin Jax allowed a one-out, five-pitch walk in the bottom half of the frame that put the go-ahead run in scoring position. One batter later, Eloy Jiménez hit a go-ahead RBI single, giving the White Sox a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

The first two games of this series have been tightly contested, but the difference has been Chicago taking advantage of more opportunities.

“I think there's more in there that we have to give on the execution side of things,” Baldelli said. “But ... we're in every game. We have the right players up; we have the right guys out there on the mound. We've just got to go out there and do it, and we will. It's just tough when you have back-to-back nights like that, where they're tough losses. You kind of take a minute after the game, regroup and then go back out there knowing you have an opportunity to win the next day.”