Brian Dozier hit his 35th home run of the year. Byron Buxton clobbered a grand slam. Miguel Sano homered for the second day in a row. John Ryan Murphy even got in on the action, hitting his first career dinger.
But the Minnesota Twins still lost. Jose Abreu had two three-run shots, and Chicago White Sox overcame a 9-5 deficit by hanging three runs on Taylor Rogers, one on Ryan Pressly and two on closer Brandon Kintzler — who blew just his second save in 15 tries.
“To have an offensive game like that, to have the [pitchers] you want in the game at the end with a chance — I don’t know how many we’ve had that would rank up there, but [this one] is in the top five,” Twins manager Paul Molitor told the Star Tribune.
“The offense was tremendous today,” starter Andrew Albers, who was removed from the game with one out in the 5th inning, told the Pioneer Press.
“For us to not be able to pull out a win today when the offense scores 11 runs and they put up nine for you as a starter in five innings (is disappointing). To put the bullpen in that situation, you don’t feel real good about it. I just wasn’t quite able to get the job done and put the game away early.”
Dozier’s 35th home run of the season is the fifth-most in the American League. Only Harmon Killebrew (eight times), Bob Allison (1963) and Josh Willingham (2012) have hit that many in Twins history. Only Killebrew has hit more in a single season.
“Shoot, that’s baseball,” Dozier told the Star Tribune. “We swung the bats well, that’s what’s frustrating.”
[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Associated Press]
