Wild White Sox win in more ways than one
Clean or dirty, the White Sox will gladly accept the look as long as they come out of the game with a win.
In Monday's season opener, the Sox emerged with a 5-3 decision over the Twins with nary a smudge.
Two days later they looked like a team that had rolled around in a mud bath for more than four hours.
But when it was over, all the White Sox cared about was rallying from a 6-4 deficit in the ninth inning and hanging a 7-6 loss on Minnesota in 11 innings.
"There are ways to hit a home run and win a game, and there's another way to manufacture it and come back," manager Robin Ventura said. "You get momentum from that. By coming back and then you win later, I don't know how many times we did that last year. Not many.
"You end up doing something that feels new and feels fresh for these guys."
Playing in front of a small crowd of 10,625 on a chilly day, the Sox committed 2 errors, issued 7 walks, struck out 12 times and went 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position against Twins starter Kevin Correia and five relief pitchers.
But blame Minnesota for making the game uglier than necessary.
Not only did the Twins squander a 2-run lead in the ninth inning when closer Glen Perkins allowed 2 runs on 3 hits, 1 walk and a wild pitch, reliever Samuel Deduno came on in the 10th and took a deserved loss.
Leury Garcia greeted Deduno with a leadoff bunt single, which he laid down on an 0-2 pitch.
"That was me," Garcia said of the risky decision to square his bat. "Two strikes, I was thinking I have to get on base. You know, you have to work on it. I've been working, and that was the perfect time to do it, and I did it. It was perfect."
Deduno proceeded to balk Garcia to second base and, after striking out Adam Eaton, his wild pitch allowed Garcia to advance to third.
Deduno struck out Marcus Semien but after intentionally walking Jose Abreu - his second free pass of the game - another wild pitch allowed Garcia to score the winning run.
"It was so exciting, especially winning the ballgame," said Garcia, who got the start at second base when Semien had to move to third in place of Conor Gillaspie (illness).
In the ninth inning, Paul Konerko started the White Sox' rally when he made his first appearance of the season, as a pinch hitter, and singled off the third-base bag on Perkins' first pitch.
Pinch hitter Dayan Viciedo also singled in his first at-bat of the year in the ninth inning, and the Sox wound up scoring 2 runs on Garcia's RBI single and Eaton's fielder's-choice groundout that featured a poor throw to the plate from Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe.
"It always good when you come from behind late," Konerko said. "That's the kind of stuff that can build some chemistry and it's a win, so that's always good. You don't want to have to go through that to win a game, but when you do wind up on the good end, it can kind of help get things going in the right direction."
Making his Sox debut and first major-league start since June 6, 2012, Felipe Paulino was about as good as could be expected.
The 30-year-old right-hander worked 5⅓ innings and allowed 2 runs (1 earned) on 7 hits and 2 walks. Paulino also had 6 strikeouts while throwing 109 pitches.
"In the end, no matter what, we won the game," Paulino said. "I'm happy to be back again in the major leagues and do my work. I'm excited to be back to the game, to give the opportunity to the White Sox to win the game. It was a long game, but we won."
sgregor@dailyherald.com