The Twins avoided being swept at home on Sunday, getting eight-plus strong innings from starter Daniel Zebulon Matthews to beat the Chicago White Sox 5-1.
It was a good win for Matthews, and he finishes August with an unblemished 5-0 record, but overall it was a hugely disappointing series because the Twins did little to slow down the front-running White Sox. Want to be a contender? Then beat the teams that matter. Talk about your missed opportunities. Sheesh.
The Twins scored early and Zebby took it from there, allowing just a run on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts. He picked up his ninth win against eight losses with a 4.58 ERA. He now shares the team lead in wins with Taj Bradley.
“Extremely impressive,” Twins manager Derek Shelton told MLB.com. “I mean, you’re talking about a White Sox lineup that we’ve seen that can do a lot of damage, and they can do a lot of damage quickly, and extremely left-handed. … He (Zebby) was really impressive. He kept them off balance. He was efficient. He set the tone.”
The run through the AL Central continues as the Detroit Tigers are next. Bradley gets the ball Monday.
Extra innings…
–So what does it all mean? Well, not much. The Twins are now 65-72, 7.5 games back in the division and four back in the wild card race. Winning the division seems unlikely, so the most logical route is via the wild card. But they have to start winning.
–The Twins scored those five runs on nine hits, getting six of them from Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee and Josh Bell. Bell drove in two more runs to give him a team-leading 83. He also leads the team in runs scored (68) and hits (123).
–The Twins are 9-17 in August. They also are 3-7 in their last 10 games, while the slumping Detroit Tigers are 2-8 over the same span. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals are making a serious run at relevance with an 8-2 record over the 10-game period.
–The don’t call ’em the Bronx Bombers for nothing: The Yankees flexed their muscles on Sunday and walloped the arch-rival Boston Red Sox 16-1, including a 9-run 8th inning.