Three takeaways as White Sox drop series finale with Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS — The White Sox didn’t have a hit until the sixth inning in Sunday’s 5-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins in front of 26,225 at Target Field.

Drew Romo became the team’s first base runner with a two-out single to right field in the sixth against Twins starter Zebby Matthews. They avoided being shut out when Braden Montgomery knocked in a run with a single in the ninth. Sam Antonacci, who had two hits, scored the lone run.

The Sox had to settle for winning two of three in the series as their four-game winning streak came to an end.

Here are three takeaways from Sunday.

1. Drew Romo ended a bid for perfection.

Matthews retired the first 17 batters on Sunday.

With two outs in the sixth, Romo worked a full count. The catcher got a fastball up and hit it to right field for a single, breaking up the bid for a perfect game.

“Him throwing a perfect game didn’t change anything,” Romo said. “I just stuck to my plan and approach and worked a good at-bat and got a good pitch to hit.”

Matthews allowed one run on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks in 8 1/3 innings.

“He pitched really well,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “Obviously attacked the zone really well, no walks. I thought, for our group, offensively, we swung the bats better than the box score’s going to show.

“I thought we had a lot of hard contact there early, right at guys. They made good defensive plays. I don’t want to take anything away from Matthews. He did a great job, obviously, gave them the chance to win that game, and we just couldn’t solve for what he was throwing at us.”

Right fielder Luke Keaschall aided Matthews with a diving catch in the second inning to rob Andrew Benintendi of an extra-base hit.

Center fielder Walker Jenkins made a nice running catch to track down a long fly ball hit by Benintendi in the fifth.

Matthews helped his own cause in the sixth when he got to a grounder hit by Tristan Peters and tossed the ball to first just in time for the first out of the inning.

Brenton Doyle lined out to third. But then Romo came through for the Sox with his single.

“We’re aware of (the perfect game),” Romo said. “But we just stick to our plan. We were hitting the ball hard, making good, hard contact. And we were just getting unlucky hitting it right at people. So we just kept on doing what we were doing.”

2. The Sox were hurt by two-out damage.

The Sox were “just an inch here or there” from a scoreless first inning. Instead, the Twins scored three runs and never looked back.

Following a leadoff walk, opener Jordan Hicks fielded a comebacker to the mound. But the Sox were only able to get the force at second. After a strikeout, Hicks walked another batter. Then Josh Bell drove in a run with a single just out of the reach of the second baseman Antonacci.

Trevor Larnach followed with a two-run double against reliever Tyler Gilbert.

“Kind of just an inch here or there, that you’re going to make a play, but it didn’t happen,” Venable said. “And credit to them, they put the ball in play, put the ball in play hard, and were able to score.”

All five of the Twins’ runs on Sunday were scored with two outs.

Ryan Jeffers doubled with two outs in the third against Gilbert and scored on a single by Bell, stretching Minnesota’s lead to 4-0.

Keaschall homered with two outs in the seventh. That was the only run allowed over five innings by bulk pitcher José Urquidy. The right-hander surrendered three hits, struck out three and had no walks. It was a nice bounce back for Urquidy, who allowed five runs while walking four in three innings on Aug. 24 against the Texas Rangers.

“I was just focused to throw strikes at the beginning and I did,” Urquidy said. “It was the difference from the last outing to today.”

3. The Sox made progress over the weekend in the division race.

The first-place Sox entered the weekend with a 2 1/2 lead in the American League Central. They left Minneapolis with a 3 1/2 game lead over the second-place Cleveland Guardians, who defeated the Kansas City Royals 11-1 on Sunday.

The third-place Twins are 7 1/2 games back.

“You come here to win a series, and we won a series,” Venable said. “Obviously, today was very disappointing, just not being able to get the offense going. Tough first inning for us on the mound and on defense.

“But we won the series, so we’ll move on. Obviously, a big one coming up here against (AL West-leading) Houston, so good series for us, tough day today. We’ll move on and be ready for (Monday).”