Quintana solid, but Gibson baffles Chicago White Sox's bats
The White Sox just went 5-2 against the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, two of the top teams in the AL East.
The White Sox have a winning record (10-7) against the AL West.
As for the Central, their home division, the Sox got off to a rolling start but have since flattened out.
Playing the basement-dwelling Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field, the White Sox fell 4-0.
Following a 9-3 start against teams in the Central, the Sox have lost 16 of 19.
"It's big," third baseman Todd Frazier said. "The other teams are hot. You lose a game, you actually lose two because you lose one in the division. Not a good performance by us today, by all means."
No, not at all.
Hard-luck starter Jose Quintana took the ball for the White Sox.
The left-hander won both of his starts against the hapless Twins this season and his mound opponent, Kyle Gibson, came in with an 0-5 record and 6.05 ERA.
Gibson got his first win after scattering 5 hits over 7 innings to go with a season-high 7 strikeouts.
In the third inning, J.B. Shuck and Tim Anderson reached on back-to-back singles before Adam Eaton flied out, Jose Abreu flied out and Melky Cabrera popped out.
"You get them on there, anytime we seemed to get something going against Gibson, he just really started going soft and using your aggressiveness against you," manager Robin Ventura said. "He had a very good changeup, he used his curve when he had to.
"He went a little bit backwards. Anytime we got into an aggressive count he just took a little off. We couldn't get anything going against him."
Brian Dozier was the Twins' offense. The second baseman hit a solo home run off Quintana in the second inning and a 3-run shot in the sixth.
Cabrera left the game in the seventh inning with a sore left wrist, which has been bothering him for more than a week.
"He's got something," Ventura said. "Just took him out to figure out what it is and where I'm going to go from here."
Morneau update:
Justin Morneau, who signed with the White Sox on June 9 but still is trying to make a full recovery from December elbow surgery, should be heading for a minor-league rehab assignment next week.
"As long as everything goes good through the rest of this homestand and then in Houston, I think we'll kind of assess where we're at there," Morneau said.
"Everything so far up to this point, every time we've increased the activity and increased the intensity of it, everything has reacted well. Hopefully, it continues to go that way."
Ideally, Morneau is in the lineup, most likely at designated hitter, when the Sox open the second half of the season on the road against the Angels on July 15.
"Once I go on a rehab assignment, I can't see it being less than 30 at-bats before I'll be ready," Morneau said. "But who knows? I could feel great after 20 or whatever. But to say less than that would probably be pushing it a little too much."