White Sox complete 0-7 road trip with loss to Twins, fall to 3-22

Abbie Parr/AP Photos

MINNEAPOLIS — 0-for-the road trip.

With the Twins' 6-3 come-from-behind victory Thursday afternoon, the Sox completed a seven-game road trip, dropping their franchise record worst record to start a season to 3-22.

The four-game sweep sent the Sox home with an 0-7 trip through Philadelphia and Minnesota and a 1-13 record on the road, also a franchise record.

The Sox led 2-0 on a sacrifice fly by Kevin Pillar and RBI single by Paul DeJong, but the Twins answered with five solo home runs, two against starter Michael Soroka (five-plus innings, two runs), one against John Brebbia, and two in the ninth against Steven Wilson.

Edouard Julien (two), Ryan Jeffers, Jose Miranda and Carlos Santana provided the long balls.

Soroka pitched five scoreless innings without getting a swing and miss before giving up homers to Julien and Jeffers to open the sixth, knotting the score at 2.

Lee catching on

The combination of 37-year-old Martin Maldonado’s .048 batting average with 25-year-old Korey Lee’s .279 average and .791 OPS as well as Lee’s superior defense resulted in Lee catching three of four games of the series, including Thursday’s day game after a night game.

“I want to get him in there a little bit more consistently,” Grifol said. “At the same time I want to make sure he's developing at the right pace and not trying to do too much too soon.”

Lee struck out with Robbie Grossman on third in the second inning, but finished with two hits. He made a sliding catch near the dugout in the bottom of the inning.

Grifol said Lee workload would be “inconsistent.”

“Sometimes he'll play three out of four, sometimes he'll play two out of four. Sometimes he might play one out of four. It all depends how he's coming along on his development and the things that he's got to work on."

Benintendi 'inconsistent'

Left fielder Andrew Benintendi didn’t start for the second time in the series, a night after not getting to a short flyball Grifol said needed to be caught.

“At times it looks really good. At times it doesn't,” Grifol said. “It's been a little inconsistent metrically. It looks like he's been playing a little bit deeper than he's normally used to. We've talked about it. We're going to make the proper adjustments and he knows. He's been around. He's won a Gold Glove before so he knows what he's got to do to get to where we need him to get to. He's working on it."

Benintendi pinch hit for Pillar with two on and one out in the eighth and struck out, then replaced Pillar in center field.

Clevinger gets closer

Right-hander Mike Clevinger, signed to a contract this month to return to the Sox after being their best starter in 2023, was slated to make his first start for Triple-A Charlotte Thursday. Grifol said four innings and 60 pitches was the plan, with five innings and 75 to follow in his second start. That sets up a potential 2024 debut on the next road trip against the Cardinals and Rays.