August 11, 2021

Jax, Twins bounce back with 4-3 win after Monday’s disaster

Rookie pitcher Griffin Jax made a quality start with 10 strikeouts, Willians Astudillo hit a two-run home run and the Twins went on to beat the Chicago White Sox 4-3 Tuesday.

The win would’ve been even better had the Twins trounced Chicago, but a win is a win and anything helps to ease the sting of what happened Monday night. The Twins were outclassed from the get go on Monday and fell hard, losing 11-1. The South Siders scored the 11 runs on 12 hits, while the Twins scored a run on two hits with an error. It was ugly.

Jax allowed three runs on five hits over six innings with 10 strikeouts and a walk. The bullpen, including the suddenly resurgent, Alex Colome, pitched scoreless baseball the rest of the way. Colome also picked up his sixth save of the season.

Bailey Ober gets the ball Wednesday against ex-Twin Lance Lynn.

Extra innings…

-The Twins are now 5-13 against the Sox this season.

-The lone run in Monday’s defeat was provided by Miguel Sano, who hit his 19th dinger of the season.

-White Sox pitcher, Lucas Giolito, two-hit the Twins over eight innings with eight strikeouts on Monday.

-The Twins turned a nice double play on Tuesday after Astudillo fielded a line shot for one out, then threw to first to double up the runner. Sano made a nice dig at first to complete the double play.

-On Aug. 9, 1967, the Twins and Washington Senators played 20 innings at the Met, the longest game in Twins’ history. The Twins raced out to a 7-0 lead through six innings, the Senators countered with a seven-run seventh inning, and then the two teams slogged it out until the top of the 20th when the Sens scored two runs to win, 9-7. The game was played in five hours, 40 minutes, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Twins starter Dave Boswell went six-plus innings. He was followed by four relievers, including Al Worthington, who struck out eight over eight-plus innings. Reliever Jim Roland was tagged with the loss.

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.