Twins battle back, then fall short in 3-2 loss to White Sox in 10 innings

CHICAGO — It felt like Throwback Tuesday at Guaranteed Rate Field: Alex Colomé blew a save, and the Twins lost a game.

Only this time, there was an even uglier twist for the Twins.

Colomé, making his White Sox debut, surrendered a game-tying home run to former teammate Nick Gordon. But two innings later, Andrew Benintendi lined a two-out single into left field in the 10th inning, scoring courtesy runner Hanser Alberto from third base, and the White Sox outlasted the Twins 3-2.

That was plenty of late-inning drama for a game that had virtually none in the first six innings, other than the question of whether White Sox righthander Michael Kopech might no-hit the Twins. And Joe Ryan pitched even better than Kopech.

Ryan was close to his best on Tuesday — yet somehow the Twins’ streak of winning his last nine starts came to an end.

The righthander, still 5-0 after his first no-decision, allowed only one hit, a line-drive single by Gavin Sheets in the second inning, over six rapid-fire innings, while striking out seven. But once he departed, the Twins’ relief corps couldn’t match that standard, and the White Sox rallied twice.

Kopech carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, but Byron Buxton finally hit a hard grounder just past shortstop Tim Anderson’s diving effort to stop it. Kopech, who had already walked three Twins, then moved Buxton to third by walking Jorge Polanco and Carlos Correa, too. When Trevor Larnach hit a medium-depth fly ball to center field, Buxton easily scored what looked like might be the night’s only runs.

But then the relief staffs got involved, and they had nowhere near the success of the starters. The White Sox, in fact, needed only seven pitches to tie the game as Ryan watched.

Twins reliever Jorge López surrendered a leadoff single to Andrew Vaughn, then watched his first pitch to Eloy Jiménez disappear over the left-field wall, handing Chicago and its wind-chilled crowd of just 13,094 something to cheer about.

It didn’t last long, however. Colomé, whose unfortunate one-year stint with the Twins included seven losses and seven blown saves, was handed the ball just hours after being called up from Class AAA Charlotte. And he didn’t make a great first impression with the White Sox.

The Twins sent up Nick Gordon, hitting only .127 this season, to pinch-hit for center fielder Michael A. Taylor. Colomé committed a pitch-clock violation before ever throwing a pitch, then fell behind 3-1 throwing nothing but cutters. On his fourth pitch back in the majors, he left a 93-mph fastball on the outer edge, and Gordon pummeled it into the stands, tying the game.

It remained that way, though both teams threatened, until the bottom of the 10th, when Elvis Andrus sacrificed Alberto to third. With the infield in, Tim Anderson hit a sharp grounder to Carlos Correa at short, and Alberto held his base as Correa converted the second out.

But Alberto jogged home with the winning run when Benintendi took a 2-2 fastball from Caleb Thielbar the opposite way, dropping a single down the left-field line and handing the Twins their fifth loss in their last six road games.