MINNEAPOLIS — The White Sox shouldn’t have let Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez up when they had him down.
Once he got back up, there was no stopping Lopez. The Sox finally got a hit when Luis Robert Jr. blasted his fifth home run leading off the ninth against Jhoan Duran — who hadn’t allowed a hit all season — to force extra innings.
But the Sox failed to get pinch runner Lenyn Sosa past third when Oscar Colas flied out to short left with one out in the 10th, and the Twins won 4-3 in the bottom of the inning when third baseman Hanser Alberto’s errant throw to first on Michael Taylor’s sac bunt allowed Willi Castro to score.
“It was a bad, bad throw, right into the runner,” said Alberto, a defensive replacement in the ninth for Jake Burger.
After Andrew Vaughn’s bases-loaded double off the left-field wall in the first inning gave the Sox and right-hander Lance Lynn a 2-0 lead, Lopez retired 23 in a row. The streak started with runners on second and third with no outs after Vaughn’s double. Yasmani Grandal struck out, and Burger and Colas grounded out.
“We were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position [in the first and 10th innings],” manager Pedro Grifol said. “That got us today. And at the end there, just a fundamental play.”
Like Lopez, Lynn had some early trouble to get through after Byron Buxton homered in the first and Taylor homered in the second to give the Twins a 3-2 lead. Lynn then retired 13 of the next 16 batters. He had 10 strikeouts in six innings.
“Better as I went,” Lynn said.
“But when you get two in the first and give them right back, that’s when you kill the momentum.”
It was the 23rd time Lynn struck out 10 or more batters and fourth time with 10 or more and no walks.
Keynan Middleton, in his Sox debut, struck out the first three batters and got four straight outs. Reynaldo Lopez struck out two in the ninth before a Colas-to-Romy Gonzalez-to-Alberto relay cut down Christian Vazquez at third base trying to stretch a double for the third out.
Costly execution
Grifol had no beef with 6-5, 220-pound Matt Wallner’s slide that sprained Tim Anderson’s knee Monday. Anderson was in an awkward position.
“That was on us; that wasn’t on them,” Grifol said. “It was a poorly executed rundown.
‘‘He did what he had to do. Unfortunately, it cost us Timmy, but I didn’t see anything wrong with it.”
Who’s on second?
Gonzalez started at second base with Elvis Andrus taking over as the regular shortstop, where he has played his entire career. Alberto can play second base, as can Sosa, who was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte.
“We’ll match that up as we see fit,” Grifol said.
Sosa, 23, was 13-for-29 (.448) with two homers and seven walks in nine games with Charlotte. He can also play shortstop and third base but might go back to Charlotte when Eloy Jimenez comes off the injured list.
