Chicago White Sox squander late lead and lose 5-4 to the Minnesota Twins in 12, drop to 19 games under .500 – The Denver Post

Chicago White Sox starter Lucas Giolito reached a milestone, collecting the 1,000th strikeout of his career during Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Twins.

What comes next for the right-hander will be closely monitored as the Aug. 1 trade deadline nears.

Giolito showed again why he’s one of the top pitchers mentioned in trade speculation, allowing allowed six hits in five scoreless innings.

But the Sox squandered that performance and a three-run, ninth-inning lead in a 5-4 loss in 12 innings in front of 29,001 at Target Field.

With the late collapse, the Sox were swept in the three-game series. They are a season-high 19 games under .500 at 41-60 and trail the first-place Twins by 12 games in the American League Central.

“This one really hurts,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “3-0 lead in the ninth against these guys, this one stings a little bit.

“We had a lot more opportunities than they did to put this game away. We’ve got to find a way to have that killer mentality to where we’re going to put people away, put teams away.”

The Twins tied the game with three in the ninth against reliever Kendall Graveman. Both teams scored once in the 10th and Ryan Jeffers drove in the game-winning run with a single with two outs in the 12th.

“Tough,” Giolito said. “Tough series. Not much else to say.”

For much of the afternoon, it appeared the Sox would be able to salvage the finale of the series.

Giolito struck out nine and walked three in the 101-pitch outing.

He had to navigate out of trouble in several innings and received strong defensive support, like in the second inning when right fielder Oscar Colás made a nice throw to the plate to nail Max Kepler for an out.

Giolito struck out Edouard Julien in the third for the 1,000th strikeout of his career. He worked around a one-out walk in the third, striking out three in the inning.

He struck out Michael A. Taylor with two on to end the fourth.

The Twins had back-to-back singles with one out in the fifth. Giolito struck out Donovan Solano and got Kepler to ground out to first to end that threat.

“There were runners on base every inning,” Giolito said. “They had a pretty good approach against me early. Looks like they were sitting on offspeed and sliders. (Catcher) Seby (Zavala) and I adjusted and we were able to use the fastball effectively.

“Commanding the fastball OK, but made big pitches when I needed to and Oscar in right field saved me a run there. The unbelievable play.”

The Sox built a lead on solo homers by Eloy Jiménez in the second and Zach Remillard in the third. It was the first home run of Remillard’s major-league career.

Remillard knocked in Colás with a single in the fifth, making it 3-0.

It remained that way until the ninth. A leadoff walk started the rally, which included an RBI double by Willi Castro and a sacrifice fly by Carlos Correa to get the Twins within a run. Alex Kirilloff tied the score with a two-out slicing RBI double to left.

Tim Anderson gave the Sox the lead in the 10th with a two-out RBI double.

A wild pitch by Tanner Banks put a runner on third for the Twins and put the Sox in a position to bring the infield in during the bottom of the 10th. Kyle Farmer hit a fly ball to shallow right. Colás couldn’t remain on his feet while making the catch and Joey Gallo scored on the sacrifice fly to make it 4-4.

“I thought he was under it and then at the end I think that ball took a left turn or something like that,” Grifol said. “I thought he was under it. That’s the way it looked on the board and then at the end, he either misjudged it or whatever, but he ended up on the ground. He made the play, but he couldn’t make the throw.”

The Sox went down in order in the 11th and 12th. They got a big 6-2-3 double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th, but Jeffers grounded a high fastball from Jesse Scholtens between first and second to hand the Sox their fifth loss in six games.

The Sox went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position, leaving the team with more what-ifs.

“Yesterday and today, we put ourselves in position to win,” Grifol said. “We’re leaving out of here 0-3. They all sting. When you do a good job of pitching and you do a good job of manufacturing some runs and put yourself in a position to win and then you lose it, they sting. That’s just a part of it.”

And Giolito knows the trade speculation is also part of the game.

“Whatever happens, happens,” Giolito said. “It’s not really on the forefront of my mind when it comes to when I’m here and I’m getting ready to pitch and I go out and pitch. I’m just going to do my job just like any other year, any other day. That’s it. That’s my mentality. See what happens.”

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