Shane Smith and Mother Nature combine for White Sox 3-0 victory over the Twins

Undefeated in seven-inning games this year!

The Twins did all they could to hand the game to the White Sox on Wednesday night only to have their hospitality rejected, but this afternoon Shane Smith saw to it that proper etiquette prevailed and the Bloomington skies took care of the rest.

The Twins handed Smith some early help when Edouard Julien followed up his leadoff single by getting picked off and Byron Buxton followed up a maybe 450-foot foul by striking out on a 3-2 pitch closer to first base than the plate. But Smith settled down after that and produced five innings of four-hit, no-run ball with just one walk and a career-high seven strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Lenyn Sosa led off the Sox second by hammering a first-pitch Chris Paddack slider that sliddeth not.

Sosa’s second homer of the season would be all the scoring needed, but Paddack helped out when he suddenly lost all control in the fourth and issued three walks around a Michael A. Taylor dribbler single to make the score 2-0. Then, after Paddack departed, Miguel Vargas welcomed Jorge Alcala and his 10+ ERA to the sixth inning with a demonstration of how well he has hit since changing his grip a couple of games ago.

That 422-foot shot, six feet longer than Sosa’s, was No. 1 on the year for Vargas and made it a 3-0 Sox lead. That’s also about the time when hearty groundskeeping efforts ensued to try to dry the field, which had been rained on from the start, stretching out the proceedings by about 15 minutes every half-inning.

Six Sox relievers had seen action last night, including Jordan Leasure, who was brought out for the sixth and got through it thanks to some help from the Twins and plate ump Derek Thomas. Leasure walked Buxton and gave up a single to Luke Keaschall, which brought up Trevot Larnack, who’d homered off him on Wednesday. The Chicago reliever went 3-0 on Larnach, but eventually got him swinging on a slider well below the zone. Then Carlos Correa also went from 3-0 to 3-2 and got rung up on what clearly should have been called ball four. A popup later, the threat was over.

Brandon Eisert was brought in for the seventh and used skill instead of luck to get through it, in the process picking up an unusual, seventh-inning save. Then followed a long rain delay before the umps called the game and the Sox were able to run their record to 6-19, including 1-0 in seven-inning contests. The win ended a 14-game losing streak at Target Field, dating back to 2023.

A couple of bonus pluses — Andrew Vaughn raised his average to .165 with two ground-ball singles, and Bobby Dalbec made it through six innings at short without embarrassing himself, perhaps helped by only encountering a couple of very routine plays. Please don’t ask about Luis Robert Jr.. Oh, OK, 0-for-4 with 3 K’s, his average now .138.

The White Sox continue their longest road trip of the season with a flight to Sacramento, with all the players who had a choice in the matter asking themselves why they didn’t sign with a team with a comfortable charter plane instead of a Piper Cub.