Martín Pérez dazzles, and the White Sox bats heat up for a blowout win against the Twins

The South Siders shut down the Twinkies

The White Sox put on a clinic today against the now 0-4 Twins. While there were no torpedo bats in the hands of White Sox batters, it didn’t matter. The bats were on fire from first pitch.

In even better news, the White Sox rotation became the fourth since 1913 not to give up any runs through four games, while going 5+ innings. The rotation sits at: 23 IP, 0 ER, 0.83 WHIP, and 19 K. Per the CHSN broadcast, the only other teams to do it were the 2019 Blue Jays, 2013 Giants, 1976 Brewers, and 1914 Boston Red Sox.

Martín Pérez started the first with minimal effort and help from the defense, retiring the Twins in order, even with a new torpedo bat in play.

Miguel Vargas started the Sox half with a single, and took second on a wild pitch. Chris Paddack, already at 14 pitches in two batters, walked Luis Robert Jr. despite being up 0-2 in the count at one point. Andrew Vaughn put the Good Guys on the board early with a one-out, three-run blast.

Pérez continued to dominate the Twins in the second.

Speedy Travis Jankowski started the bottom of the second with an infield single and Michael A. Taylor followed with another single. Jacob Amaya and Vargas drew walks, with the latter forcing in Jankowski. With bases loaded and one out, Twins pitching coach Pete Maki stepped out to chat with a struggling Paddack. Robert hit a sac fly, sending Taylor home.

Then Andrew Benintendi stepped in for a three-run homer, the 100th of his career, putting the White Sox up, 7-0.

The Twins were once again shut out in the top of the third. Paddack started the bottom of the third with a walk to Matt Thaiss. While he was able to get two easy-ish outs, Taylor made him pay with a two-run homer. Byron Buxton made a leap in an attempt to rob the White Sox of the run, but was unsuccessful.

Pérez kept Twins batters on their heels, with a pitching masterclass for most of the game. It wasn’t until the fourth inning, at 44 pitches, did he allow a base runner. But he walked Ryan Jeffers and hit Ty France, giving up two bases with two outs. The shakiness didn’t last long though, and Pérez got José Miranda out on strikes. Frustrated with his team, Rocco Baldelli pulled Buxton and Carlos Correa out of the game in the top of the fourth, although Buxton’s removal might have been due to colliding with the wall in his failed attempt at Taylor’s homer.

Paddack continued with the walks in the bottom of the fourth, starting with one to Vargas, the leadoff man’s second walk of the game. With one out, Baldelli finally pulled his starter for Darren McCaughan, who was able to keep the South Siders from continuing their offensive momentum.

Mickey Gasper drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, but that was it for Minnesota, as Pérez was still able to obtain his sixth strikeout over a mere 73-pitch effort.

Pérez issued his third walk of the game with two outs in the top of the sixth, prompting the bullpen to stir. He did, however, close out the inning still riding a no-hitter, and tying a career-high of nine strikeouts after punching France out.

In the seventh, the newly-acquired Mike Vasil stepped in to replace Pérez and make his White Sox debut. Vasil came to the White Sox via waivers from the Rays, but still under the rules of the Rule 5 draft. Just as an aside for anyone unfamiliar, this allows teams to select players with a minimum tenure from other organizations’ minor league rosters who are not on their 40-man roster. The selected players are then added to the drafting team’s active, 26-man roster. The White Sox picked up starter Shane Smith with the first pick in the Rule 5 draft, but made no other selections in the major league phase. But Vasil, like Smith, still must remain on the active roster all season or risk being offered back to their original teams at half of the drafting price. Both Smith and Vasil, oddly enough, hail from Massachusetts, and had a reunion with another fellow classmate, Sean Burke.

The no-hitter ended with two outs in the seventh, when Willi Castro singled to right field on a line drive. Despite the hit, Vasil had a good outing, immediately serving up a grounder to Harrison Bader to end the inning.

Vasil gave up a two-out single to Jeffers in the eighth, after DaShawn Keirsey Jr. reached on a fielding error by Nick Maton. But the White Sox newbie reeled himself right back in to strike out France.

Already down on their luck, the Twins ran Castro out as a position player pitcher. Deep off the bench, Brooks Baldwin came in to pinch-hit and ended up with a two-out single. Slater ended the inning, though, with a pop fly.

While all the hits might have been emptied from White Sox bats over the first three innings, this marks the second scoreless PPP outing in four games. Tony La Russa would be so proud.

Lefty Brandon Eisert came in to close out the game and keep the 9-0 lead intact. Despite a small hiccup in letting Gasper walk again, Eisert ended the game by striking Bader out.

My friends, that is a BIG White Sox win!

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