MINNEAPOLIS -- On a night when one of their best players had a slight hiccup, another White Sox star just kept rolling.
Miguel Vargas’ two-run single in the third inning on Tuesday gave the White Sox a 3-0 lead over the Twins. But Minnesota chipped away at Chicago ace Davis Martin, knocking him out in the fifth inning of a 6-4 Twins victory at Target Field.
Martin gave up a career-high 10 hits in his shortest start of the season, but the White Sox hitters almost overcame a rare off night for their Cy Young Award candidate. The Twins surged to a 6-3 lead in the fifth inning, but Chicago threatened in the seventh and the eighth, scoring once while leaving five runners on base.
The biggest at-bat in that stretch was a battle between Vargas and Twins right-hander Andrew Morris with two runners on base and one out in the seventh. Vargas fell behind in the count, 1-2, but fouled off two pitches while taking two balls to fill the count. After another foul ball, Morris -- whose four-seam fastball averages 95.9 mph -- dug deep and nearly touched 100 mph for the first time in his career, blowing a 99.6 mph fastball past Vargas to get the strikeout.
But the White Sox would not be 32-29 and in second in the AL Central without the productivity and leadership of Vargas, their 26-year-old slugger who has spent two years with the team since he was acquired from the Dodgers in a three-team deal on July 29, 2024.
He started their current three-game series in Minnesota with his third career multihomer game on Monday, going deep against Twins All-Star Joe Ryan and promising young reliever Travis Adams. That gave Vargas 15 homers on the season, tops among MLB third basemen. His 40 RBIs and 44 runs scored also set the pace at the hot corner in the Majors. And he’s just one home run shy of tying his career high, which he set last season.
“I think I'm being really consistent with the decisions, even last year and the year before,” Vargas said. “You know, that was kind of the plan that we had coming to this year, to trust more of my eyes. And I feel I'm really in a good spot right now and hopefully I’ll keep on being that way.”
Vargas’ productivity came as no surprise to White Sox general manager Chris Getz, who traded for Vargas in 2024. The club was patient with Vargas, who hit .104 over the final two months of the 2024 season but posted a .791 OPS from the 2025 All-Star break through the rest of the season.
“He just continues to get better,” said Getz. “We were confident that he was going to take another step forward from last year, and he's done that. There were glimpses of it last year. You know, that month to six-week period when he was one of the top hitters in baseball, so we knew it was in there.
“He puts together such a good at-bat, and there’s been a lot of damage in there, but defensively he continues to improve and work. He loves to play, his instincts for the game are so strong. Obviously there were qualities and ingredients that we felt were in there when we acquired him. And then you put on top of that just the acumen and the work ethic and it's really aligned for him, and he’s been a great player for this year.”
Vargas is tied with Colson Montgomery for the most home runs among Chicago’s active players. They’re still five homers behind Munetaka Murakami, who is on the IL with a right hamstring injury he suffered on Friday and is expected to miss four to six weeks. Some young sluggers might feel pressure trying to replace Murakami’s big bat, but not Vargas. He’s got his eye on the bigger picture.
“It’s not just about one guy. Muni [Murakami] has helped us a lot, but it's all nine hitters doing their job and being consistent at the plate, you know?” Vargas said. “This is a team, like I said before. We don't give up at any stage of the game, and, you know, I feel like now, definitely, the way we play, we feel that we can win again, at any stage of the game.”