A pair of AL Central foes close out their first half schedule as they battle on the diamond in the Twin Cities. The Chicago White Sox are on the road as they finish up a four-game series with the Minnesota Twins Sunday afternoon. In the first two games of the series, both those contests went in favor of the White Sox. Chicago rolled to a 12-2 victory in the opener Thursday night and followed that up with a 6-2 triumph on Friday night in the second game of the series. Will the White Sox head into the All-Star break with momentum or can the Twins battle back and head into the break with a win?
Chicago won for the fourth straight game and the sixth time in the last eight contests as they earned the victory Friday night. The White Sox entered Saturday third in the AL Central, three games behind the Twins for the top spot in the division. In Friday’s game, Chicago got two hits each from Tim Anderson (two runs, RBI) and Andrew Vaughn (two RBI) in the victory. Anderson (his eighth) and Adam Engel (his second) each homered in the contest for the White Sox. Michael Kopech (3-6) earned the win on the mound as he allowed two runs on five hits with four walks and two strikeouts over five innings before turning things over to the bullpen.
Dylan Cease is on the mound for the White Sox as he makes his 19th start of the season in this contest. He comes in 8-4 with a 2.30 ERA, a 1.239 WHIP, 46 walks and 142 strikeouts over 97.2 innings of work on the year. Cease picked up the win in hi s last start, which came in the second game of a doubleheader against the Guardians on the road Tuesday night. He threw 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing five hits with three walks and nine strikeouts in a 7-0 White Sox victory. In his last three starts, Cease is 2-1 with a 1.08 ERA, a 1.26 WHIP, nine walks and 21 strikeouts over 16.2 innings of work. Cease makes his eighth career start against the White Sox in this contest. He is 1-4 with a 7.64 ERA, a 1.849 WHIP, 18 walks and 38 strikeouts over 33 innings of work against them. In his lone start at Target Field, he came up a loser back on July 5, 2021. Cease threw 5.1 innings, allowing six runs on six hits with two walks and eight strikeouts in an 8-5 White Sox defeat.