White Sox Hit Three Homers in Four Innings, Cruise Past Twins
Chicago hit three home runs before Minnesota scored a single run, turning a September Friday into a showcase of right-center power. The White Sox walked away 4-1, with every run on both sides coming via the long ball.
The story of the night was simple and relentless: Chicago kept hitting the ball to right center, and Minnesota had no answer until it was far too late. Miguel Vargas got it started in the first, pulling a 382-foot shot to make it 1-0. Braden Montgomery followed in the second with a 419-foot blast to push the lead to 2-0. Minnesota's Zebby Matthews was getting hit, and the White Sox weren't done. In the fourth, Colson Montgomery put the game away with a 416-foot two-run shot — Benintendi scored ahead of him — and just like that it was 4-0. That swing pushed Chicago's win probability from 82% to 93%, and the Twins never seriously threatened after that.
On the mound, Erick Fedde did exactly what a team needs from a starter when the offense gives him a cushion: he was clean. Five innings, three hits, zero earned runs, two walks, two strikeouts. He didn't dominate, but he didn't need to. Hagen Smith then came on and was arguably sharper — two innings, two hits, zero runs, three strikeouts — making the bullpen side of this one look airtight. For Minnesota, Matthews absorbed the damage: five innings, four hits, four earned runs, one walk, four strikeouts. The numbers don't lie. He was the losing pitcher in a game decided by the fourth inning.
Minnesota's offense wasn't completely invisible. Kody Clemens went 3-for-4, and Royce Lewis added a 2-for-4 night, so the contact was there. But the Twins couldn't string anything together against Fedde or Smith until the ninth, when Josh Bell launched a 460-foot shot to right center — the longest homer of the night by a wide margin — to make it 4-1. It was a consolation prize, nothing more. Garrett Acton threw two clean innings in relief for Minnesota, but the damage was already done. This one appears to have been decided by the fourth inning at the latest, and the White Sox looked like a team that found its swing at exactly the right moment.