The White Sox’ magic number is 2020.
In what has been anything but an enchanting year with a pandemic that, among other things, shortened Major League baseball’s season to 60 games, the Sox clinched their first postseason berth since 2008 with a 4-3 come from behind victory over the Twins on Thursday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Sox (33-17), who began the day with a magic number of 1, have 10 games remaining to protect a three-game lead over the defending champion Twins (31-21) in the AL Central. The Sox are four ahead of the Twins in the loss column, and they also clinched the tiebreaker by virtue of a better record in the division. The Sox took three of four games in the series and finished 5-5 against the Twins.
Trailing 3-2 in the seventh, the Sox tied it when Jose Abreu beat out an infield single to shortstop Jorge Polanco, scoring Jarrod Dyson for his league leading 51st RBI. Eloy Jimenez, who struck out his first three times up, followed with a double against Sergio Romo scoring pinch-runner Yolmer Sanchez to give the Sox their first lead.
Sox closer Alex Colome recorded the last four outs for his 12th save in 13 opportunities.
Abreu, continuing his push for AL MVP honors, hit his 17th homer and Edwin Encarnacion slugged his ninth against Twins righty Kenta Maeda. Byron Buxton hit two homers and Josh Donaldson homered against Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez to account for the game’s first five runs. Lopez allowed three runs over 5 1⁄3 innings with seven strikeouts.
Donaldson, who had disputed a strike call by plate umpire Dan Bellino, kicked dirt over the plate as he completed his home run trot and was ejected.
Buxton led off the seventh against Codi Heuer with a single and tried to score from first when center fielder Luis Robert dropped Ryan Jeffers fly ball toward the right-center field gap, but second baseman Nick Madrigal’s throw to catcher Yasmani Grandal cut him down.
Heuer (3-0), a rookie, recorded five outs, three on strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 1.86.
The Sox, the second team after the Dodgers to clinch a postseason berth, were relatively subdued after the win, shaking hands as they would after any victory. Coronavirus restrictions were at play, but also a sense of more goals to attain.
“We’re not done yet, so I don’t want to get to wrapped up,” manager Rick Renteria said before the game. “I hope the celebration is more for all the fans. That the fans are enjoying that we’ve come a long way and that we’re going to get back into a position of fighting for something special.
“I know that maybe we’ll be doing it internally, you know, inside. We’ll pop our corks in our brains and in our hearts, so to speak.”
