Right-hander Jake Odorizzi will attempt to earn his 15th win on Wednesday night as the American League Central-leading Minnesota Twins go for a three-game series sweep of the Chicago White Sox in Minneapolis.
The Twins pulled out a wild, 9-8 victory in 12 innings Tuesday for their fourth win in five games. The White Sox have dropped six of seven, including the past four in a row.
Odorizzi (14-6, 3.60 ERA) is 3-3 with a 3.20 ERA in nine career starts against the White Sox and 2-1 with a 2.76 ERA in three starts vs. Chicago this season. He won his last start against the White Sox on Aug. 28 in Chicago, 8-2, when he allowed two runs on five hits over six innings while striking out eight.
On Wednesday, the White Sox (65-86) will be without their planned starting pitcher because of an injury for the second game in a row.
Lucas Giolito, who was supposed to start Tuesday night, was shut down for the rest of the season because of a mild lat strain. Dylan Covey, who had been scheduled to pitch Wednesday, has been scratched due to shoulder soreness.
Right-hander Ivan Nova (10-12, 4.86 ERA), who gave up five runs on 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings in Chicago’s 11-10 loss at Seattle on Sunday, will be used for an inning as an opener Wednesday instead of throwing his normal bullpen session.
Nova is 4-2 with a 3.44 ERA in seven career appearances (six starts) against the Twins, including 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA in two starts at Target Field.
Both teams could be short-handed in the bullpen after using seven pitchers each in the Tuesday night marathon.
Chicago took a 6-5 lead in the 11th on a Tim Anderson home run, only to see the Twins (93-58) rally to tie it against closer Alex Colome on a Mitch Garver sacrifice fly.
The White Sox then took an 8-6 lead in the 12th on a long home run by Ryan Cordell before the Twins rallied to win it with three runs. The winning run scored when Ronald Torreyes was hit by a Jose Ruiz pitch with one out and the bases loaded.
“I was just trying to put the ball in play, and he hit me,” said Torreyes, a mid-September call-up from Triple-A Rochester. “I’m just happy to be here, happy to be able to contribute, and I’m happy we got the win tonight.”
Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said, “There is no quit in this group. What a group. I mean, there’s not a lot of words for that. You had to experience that game and feel it and go through it and feel the ups and downs.
“It would have been easy to end the game, go up there and take three big swings or whatever and a few outs and it would have been over because it was a long game and it wasn’t an easy game. That’s not what they do. We went out there and had some really impressive at-bats over and over again. … We found a way.”
The win kept Minnesota, which improved to 21-11 in one-run contests, five games in front of Cleveland (88-63) in the division and reduced the Twins’ magic number to seven.
It was the third walk-off loss in four games for Chicago, which is 5-16 in its past 21 games.
“We just fell short, but those kids should be proud of themselves for not quitting,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “That was some kind of battle against one of the best teams in the big leagues, and we are right there toe to toe and fell short.”
–Field Level Media
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