Twins bring an end to their 0-for-2025 beginning with one big inning against White Sox

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Apr 1, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — Jose Miranda dropped a bloop single into right field in the sixth inning Tuesday, and the Twins dugout erupted in a way it hasn’t for days, what felt like an eternity in the early part of the season.

There were the high-five lines. Players shouted in celebration and smacked the top of the dugout railing for more noise.

Who knew hitting a few singles could provide such cathartic relief?

The Twins snapped a 19-inning scoreless streak with a two-out rally when seven consecutive batters reached base. Miranda’s bloop off the end of his bat was one of four run-scoring singles during the inning, and the Twins, finally, earned their first win of the season with an 8-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field.

It was a five-run explosion for the Twins offense after they totaled six runs in their previous four games. Harrison Bader hammered a three-run homer to left field, where the wind was blowing in, during the ninth inning.

The Twins couldn’t solve White Sox right-hander Shane Smith, who made his major league debut after he was the first pick in last December’s Rule 5 draft. They compiled two hits and two walks through the first five innings.

Smith, used as a reliever at the end of last season, seemingly ran out of gas in the sixth inning. He issued back-to-back walks to Byron Buxton and Trevor Larnach before he was pulled, and he exited to a standing ovation from the fans sitting behind the White Sox dugout in the announced crowd of 12,089.

White Sox reliever Penn Murfee didn’t have much time to warm up — Smith threw 73 pitches — and the Twins pounced. Ryan Jeffers ended the shutout when he lined an RBI single to right field. Ty France, the next batter, whiffed on the first two sweepers he saw before poking the third one up the middle for an RBI single.

Jeffers, who thought about running to third on France’s single, nearly killed the rally with a baserunning mistake, but he slid around a tag diving back into second base. Perhaps a sign the Twins’ luck had turned a bit.

After Willi Castro was hit by a pitch, Edouard Julien lined a game-tying RBI single over the shortstop’s head. Julien pointed toward his teammates in the dugout in celebration as he ran up the first base line. Then it was Miranda’s turn to keep the party alive in the dugout.

Murfee, pulled five batters after Smith received a standing ovation, walked off the mound to boos raining down from the crowd. Two runs were charged to Smith as the White Sox fell just short from becoming the first team in MLB history to have their starting pitchers give up zero earned runs through the season’s first five games.

The Twins’ favorite inning of the season ended when they attempted a double steal with lefty-hitting Matt Wallner in a 1-2 count against left-handed pitcher Fraser Ellard. Julien was tossed out at the plate as manager Rocco Baldelli stormed out of the dugout to argue there was a balk.

The Twins, who own a 20-3 record in their past 23 games against the White Sox, haven’t lost back-to-back games to their division rival since May 2-3, 2023.

Simeon Woods Richardson allowed five hits and two runs across four innings in his season debut. He surrendered three singles in the second inning and a sacrifice fly following a double in the fourth inning.

The Twins fell into a three-run deficit when Louie Varland gave up a solo homer to Nick Maton in the fifth inning before their decisive sixth-inning rally.

Before Bader removed any potential late-game drama when he crushed his pinch-hit, three-run homer — his second homer of the season — it was the Twins defense that may have saved the day.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, when the White Sox had two runners on base with one out against reliever Griffin Jax, Carlos Correa made a diving catch to his left on a line drive from Miguel Vargas. Correa broke into a smile as he pointed toward a couple of teammates.