Clutch Engel comes through
Adam Engel fouled off a sacrifice bunt, then he showed another one.
Only for a brief moment, though. With the go-ahead run at second base in the eighth inning in a battle for first place in the American League Central with the visiting Twins, Engel pulled back and slashed a single to center field against left-hander Taylor Rogers, driving in the go-ahead run in the White Sox’ 3-1 victory Monday.
Shortstop Tim Anderson then cracked his third hit, a double off the left-field wall, to score Luis Robert for a two-run cushion, and the Sox (31-16) held on to widen their lead in first place to two games.
The Sox won for the 21st time in 26 games and handed the Twins (30-19) only their third defeat in their last 13 games.
For Sox pitchers, it was an endless night of escaping trouble. Starter Dylan Cease and the bullpen wiggled out of numerous jams, holding the Twins to 2-for16 hitting with runners in scoring position.
Closer Alex Colome got the last four outs and earned the win. Colome was brought in by manager Rick Renteria after lefthander Gio Gonzalez walked two in the eighth with two outs in a tie game. Colome walked Max Kepler to load the bases for Nelson Cruz, the 10th walk by Sox pitchers, but Cruz grounded out to Anderson.
Rogers returned the free-pass favor in the bottom of the eighth, walking Yoan Moncada and Robert to open the inning. Engel then pinch-hit for the struggling Nomar Mazara.
Cease pitched 4⅔ innings of one-run ball. His good stuff was evident against the Twins, as it usually is, but so was his inefficiency with high pitch counts. And he invited trouble, allowing the leadoff batter to reach in each of the five innings he started, including doubles by LaMonte Wade and Ehire Adrianza in the second and third innings and walks to
Jorge Polanco and Adrianza in the fourth and fifth innings.
Not until the fifth, though, did the Twins finally make Cease pay, scoring the tying run on Polanco’s two-out single that drove in Adrianza.
Cease had escaped until that point, getting Cruz to rap into an inning-ending double play with runners at the corners in the third. He exited having thrown 99 pitches — 58 for strikes — and held the Twins to 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position until Polanco’s hit.
Second baseman Nick Madrigal’s bloop single to right near the foul line in the second inning against right-hander Jose Berrios scored Moncada from second to give Cease a 1-0 lead. He left with a 3.20 ERA.
“His breaking ball is great, and as he starts to settle down and trust himself and get more games under his belt, he’s going to evolve as an excellent major-league pitcher,” Renteria said.
Evan Marshall entered in relief of Codi Heuer to face Cruz with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth and got an inning-ending strikeout, then pitched a scoreless seventh.
Anderson, who singled in two of his first three at-bats, raised his league-leading average to .369 with the double. He is attempting to become the 15th player (16th time) to lead the majors in average in back-to-back seasons, the first since the Rockies’ Larry Walker in 1998-99 and the first in Sox history.
The Twins were without Eddie Rosario (bruised elbow), Miguel Sano (sore neck) and Marwin Gonzalez, who was scratched from the lineup with a non-COVID-related illness.