The Minnesota Twins had multiple opportunities to complete a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox, but despite leading five times, their bullpen couldn’t close it out in a 9-8 loss on Wednesday afternoon.
The Twins got off to a good start against Lance Lynn, taking a 3-1 lead on Luis Arraez’s RBI single in the second inning. After Joe Ryan gave up a two-run homer to Eloy Jiménez in the fourth, Jorge Polanco crushed his first home run of the game to give Minnesota a 5-3 lead.
Emilio Pagan was the first Twin to come out of the bullpen and served up a two-run homer to Luis Robert to tie the game at 5. After Polanco’s second homer gave the Twins a 6-5 lead in the seventh inning, the White Sox tied it up again on a Gilberto Celestino throwing error in the seventh.
Gio Urshela put the Twins back on top with a two-run homer in the top of the eighth, but Andrew Vaughn answered with a two-run bomb of his own in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game at 8-8.
The game eventually went to extra innings where Jovani Morán allowed a walk-off RBI single to Leury Garcia to help the White Sox avoid the sweep.
It was a disastrous game for the Twins bullpen, who allowed five runs over five innings to cost Minnesota a chance to gain ground over their American League Central rivals.
After an off-day on Thursday, the Twins will continue their road trip when they begin a three-game series with the Texas Rangers.
