White Sox 10, Twins 1: Bullpen Four-Hitter Holds the Central

September 6, 2026 - Chicago - Four innings of nothing, then Munetaka Murakami rolled a grounder through the right side and Sam Antonacci scored from second. Rate Field finally had a lead. It never gave it back.

The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 10-1 on a partly cloudy Sunday. Five relievers threw a four-hitter. Fifteen strikeouts, one walk. Randal Grichuk and Kyle Teel turned the eighth into a five-run inning, and Chicago kept a 2 1/2-game lead in the AL Central with three weeks left.

A bullpen that never handed the baseball to a starter

Bryan Hudson opened. Jordan Hicks followed. Hagen Smith then threw three hitless innings, four strikeouts, no walks, and left with the win (3-1). Grant Taylor and Tyler Davis finished it. The staff did not need a conventional starter. It needed strikeouts and a first run. It got both.

Minnesota put almost nothing in play against that mix. Fifteen strikeouts will do that. Trevor Larnach went down three times. Walker Jenkins, Josh Bell, and Luke Keaschall each struck out twice. The Twins finished with four hits. One of them mattered.

Bailey Ober (7-5) worked 4 1/3 innings and left after Murakami's single. Four hits, six strikeouts, three walks. The Associated Press noted he has gone eight starts since his last win. Sunday was not going to end that wait. Chicago's sixth inning made sure of it.

Antonacci's afternoon of doubles

Antonacci doubled three times. That is not a rounding error. That is a left fielder treating Rate Field like a pinball table.

The sixth is the inning Minnesota will want back. Tristan Peters was on. Chase Meidroth was on. Antonacci doubled to center, the ball deflecting off Kody Clemens, and both runners scored. 3-0. Grichuk, pinch-hitting, singled Antonacci home. 4-0. Ober was already gone. Andrew Morris and the Twins' late relief never recovered the inning.

Peters finished 3-for-5 with two doubles, three runs, and the ground-rule double in the eighth that made a blowout look inevitable. He has been the White Sox outfielder who keeps showing up in September. Sunday he scored three times before the eighth inning even ended.

Miguel Vargas walked with the bases loaded in the seventh. Peters scored. 5-1. Vargas also stole a base and drove in a run the ugly way, which is how you win a division game when the starter never takes the mound.

Lee's homer, then the eighth erased it

Brooks Lee led off the seventh with a homer to right-center, his 23rd. It was Minnesota's first hit of consequence and its only run. Taylor allowed it. The rest of the inning died.

Chicago answered by emptying the inning. Grichuk led off the eighth with his 12th homer, a fly to left. Colson Montgomery and Braden Montgomery reached. Peters doubled Montgomery home. Teel then hit a three-run shot to center, his third homer of the year, and the scoreboard flipped from a managed lead to 10-1.

Teel catching and hitting the three-run ball is the kind of eighth-inning detail that makes a 10-1 feel like more than a pile of walks. Chicago drew 10 walks as a team. Minnesota's bullpen walked the yard after Ober left. Garrett Acton faced five batters in the eighth and walked three of them before Teel ended the argument.

The White Sox left 14 on base and still scored 10. That is a messy offensive night that still wins by nine because the other club had four hits.

What 75-68 looks like in September

Chicago is 75-68. The Associated Press had the White Sox 2 1/2 up on Cleveland after Sunday, even with the Guardians walking off Detroit. The White Sox get Labor Day off, then host Pittsburgh. Sean Burke is lined up for Tuesday. The Central is not clinched. A 10-1 home win against a 68-75 Twins club does not clinch anything. It does keep the math on Chicago's side.

Minnesota opens at Detroit on Monday. Lee had two hits and the homer. Royce Lewis singled. Gabriel Gonzalez pinch-hit a single. That was the offense. Fifteen strikeouts is a lineup that never found the barrel.

I am less interested in crowning the White Sox after one Sunday than I am in the shape of this staff. Five arms, no starter, 15 punchouts, one walk. If that is the September plan, Rate Field can live with it as long as the bats keep cashing the walks.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Chicago at 22 team fantasy points, the top club score on a 15-game Sunday. Smith checked in at 15 pitching fantasy points for the three hitless innings. Antonacci led the White Sox bats at 10 hitting fantasy points on the three doubles. Fantasy points measure what a player did. Price is what the market will pay. They move together, but they are not the same number.

The Twins fly to Detroit. The White Sox take Monday off. A 10-1 looks simple in the morning. The eighth inning is why it looks that way.

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*Sources: ESPN box score; CBS Sports / AP recap; MLB.com schedule; AthX Engine daily fantasy points (September 6, 2026 game date). Information only; not financial advice.*