White Sox Erupt for 10, Teel and Grichuk Go Deep
Chicago poured it on Minnesota Sunday, winning 10-1 behind a six-run eighth inning that turned a competitive game into a rout. Kyle Teel's three-run homer to center — 409 feet — was the knockout blow, and Randal Grichuk went deep twice for good measure.
The game's decisive turn came quietly in the fifth. Murakami singled to right, Antonacci scored, and just like that the win probability swung from 67% to 77% in Chicago's favor. It looked like a modest moment at the time — one run, early innings — but it set the tone for everything that followed. Bailey Ober was on the mound for Minnesota and he was never comfortable, walking three and allowing four hits over 4.1 innings before exiting with his team already in a hole.
Chicago kept building. In the sixth, Antonacci doubled to center, scoring Meidroth and Peters to push the lead to 3-0, then Grichuk singled to left to plate Antonacci and make it 4-0. Minnesota got one back in the seventh when Brooks Lee launched a 425-foot homer to right center — the only real highlight of the night for the Twins — but the White Sox answered immediately in the same frame when Vargas drew a walk with the bases loaded, scoring Peters to restore the four-run cushion at 5-1. The story of the night was Chicago's lineup refusing to let Minnesota breathe.
The eighth inning was where it became a statement. Grichuk led off with a solo shot to left, 361 feet, his second homer of the game, making it 6-1. Peters then hit a ground rule double to score C. Montgomery and push it to 7-1. Then Teel stepped up and ended any remaining suspense, sending a 409-foot shot to center that scored B. Montgomery and Peters — a three-run blast that capped the scoring at 10-1. On the pitching side, Hagen Smith opened for Chicago with three perfect innings — no hits, no walks, four strikeouts — and the bullpen arms that followed, Grant Taylor and Jordan Hicks, combined for 3.1 innings of one-run ball. The White Sox pitching staff appears to have given this offense exactly what it needed: enough early stability to let the bats take over. Antonacci went 3-for-4 with two RBI and scored twice. Peters went 3-for-5 with three runs scored. This was a thorough, wire-to-wire beating.