{"id":1030630,"date":"2026-08-29T09:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1030630\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T09:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:07:19","slug":"chicago-white-sox-pad-al-central-lead-with-7-4-win-vs-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1030630\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago White Sox pad AL Central lead with 7-4 win vs. Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The Chicago White Sox led by two runs, but the Minnesota Twins were threatening with runners on the corners and one out in the sixth inning Friday at Target Field.<\/p>\n

The Sox called on Grant Taylor<\/a> to replace fellow reliever Hagen Smith.<\/p>\n

Luke Keaschall hit a sharp grounder to first. Munetaka Murakami made the quick decision to step on the bag and then throw to the plate, where catcher Drew Romo tagged out Trevor Larnach for an unconventional inning-ending double play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully Mune had a great play, great tag from Romo,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018They\u2019re going to decide it all\u2019: If Chicago White Sox want to stay atop AL Central, head-to-heads will be key<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Taylor pitched a career-high 2 2\/3 scoreless relief innings and was credited with the win as the Sox defeated the Twins 7-4 in front of 28,140.<\/p>\n

The right-hander struck out three and surrendered one hit in the outing.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrant was incredible,\u201d manager Will Venable said. \u201cHe\u2019s just pounding the zone. He\u2019s got really good stuff. It was 2 2\/3, 27 pitches. So that\u2019s a big ask, but he\u2019s just so efficient. It obviously saved the day for us there to transition out of Hagen and then bridge it to (Bryan Hudson).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox (71-63) bounced back after seeing an early four-run slip away.<\/p>\n

And they extended their lead in the American League Central<\/a> to 3\u00bd games over the second-place Cleveland Guardians (68-67), who lost 3-0 to the Kansas City Royals. The third-place Twins are 7\u00bd games back.<\/p>\n

Center fielder Tristan Peters saw his franchise-record-tying streak of consecutive games with a home run<\/a> end at five. But shortstop Colson Montgomery provided early offense with a three-run home run as part of a four-run first inning.<\/p>\n

All four Sox runs in the first were scored with two outs. Miguel Vargas singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on an Andrew Benintendi single. Braden Montgomery singled and Colson Montgomery followed with the three-run home run, giving the Sox a 4-0 lead.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery rounds he bases after hitting a three-run home run in the first inning against the Twins on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Ellen Schmidt\/AP)
\n\"WhiteWhite Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Twins in the first inning Aug. 28, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Stephen Maturen\/Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the past couple games, my decision-making and my process and approach at the plate has been a little more consistent,\u201d said Colson Montgomery, who was 2-for-4 with three RBIs. \u201cObviously still have some at-bats where you don\u2019t have results. I just try to go up there, stay positive, be on the attack, do what I do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for me, to come up tonight and be productive and driving in runs, it means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Twins struck back with three runs in the bottom of the first. Brooks Lee hit a two-run home run and Kody Clemens had a solo home run, bringing the Twins within 4-3. The Twins pulled even in the second inning on Lee\u2019s RBI single.<\/p>\n

The Sox jumped back ahead in the third inning on a Benintendi RBI single. The next inning Peters \u2014 who went 1-for-4 with a single \u2014 scored on a passed ball, extending the Sox lead to 6-4.<\/p>\n

Sox starter Luis Castillo got the Sox out of a jam in the bottom of the fourth.<\/p>\n

The Twins had two on with no outs. Castillo made his best pitches of the night. Keaschall lined out to left field. Lee and Ryan Jeffers popped out to shortstop Colson Montgomery and the catcher Romo, respectively.<\/p>\n

Castillo allowed four runs on eight hits with one strikeout and one walk in four innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the game, I was trying to be perfect with every pitch and then I made a couple of mistakes,\u201d Castillo said through an interpreter. \u201cIn that fourth inning, the last two innings (of the outing), I was just trying to perform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking of being perfect with the pitches, but just throwing it with confidence and I was able to hold them there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor helped the Sox escape trouble in the sixth, with the play by Murakami and Romo.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat job fielding the ball cleanly, number one,\u201d Venable said. \u201cAnd then just good baseball IQ and knowing that\u2019s a timing play if he goes after the runner at second base, once he does step on first base, so really good awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the baserunning side, Larnach, that\u2019s his job is to go and make him make a play there. So, just a good baseball play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox tacked on an insurance run when Chase Meidroth scored on a wild pitch in the eighth on the way to improving to eight games over .500 for the first time this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no panic at all,\u201d said Colson Montgomery, who also pointed to the strong showing from the bullpen. \u201cIt was one of those things where it\u2019s just like, \u2018All right, team: They punched back.\u2019 And it\u2019s like what our coaches and Will and our hitting coaches, everyone tells us, is just, don\u2019t be complacent. Especially in a game like this, divisional game where these games matter and we need to win these.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to back down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The Chicago White Sox led by two runs, but the Minnesota Twins were threatening with runners…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1030631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[134183,401160,21050,21896,21894,960,1274,29987,245042,16076,5386,1818,53894,27038,1287,1266,150026],"class_list":["post-1030630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-al-central","tag-al-central-race","tag-andrew-benintendi","tag-braden-montgomery","tag-chase-meidroth","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-colson-montgomery","tag-drew-romo","tag-grant-taylor","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-luis-castillo","tag-miguel-vargas","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-munetaka-murakami"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117178013070112402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}