Berríos (10 K's) 'proud' of work against Sox

MINNEAPOLIS -- The steady mist and chilly wind swirling around Target Field throughout José Berríos’ outing on Tuesday night did absolutely nothing to dampen his intensity -- or the movement on his pitches. The way he was mowing through the White Sox lineup, nothing in the world might have gotten in his way.

It was that kind of outing in which Berríos very well might have made a bid for the history books, had it not been for one swing by Zack Collins in the second inning. Unfortunately for the Twins, that one swing cost them the game, too, in a 4-1 loss to the White Sox.

That two-run single was the only dent to Berríos’ stat line in the hit column through seven suffocating innings, at the end of which he stood on the mound, clapping in triumph, after whiffing Andrew Vaughn for his 10th strikeout of the evening. Even so, Berríos fell victim to sloppiness in nearly all other facets of the game -- defense, baserunning, relief pitching -- as the Twins squandered his effort in the middle game of this series. The teams will play a rubber match on Wednesday.

“I mean, it was a pretty damn good start no matter which way you spin it,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “A couple of walks in an inning, we didn’t play clean baseball behind him, resulted in a couple of runs. I mean besides that, every way you cut it up, this was just a very, very good, solid outing by him.”

A very, very good, solid outing that resulted in a loss, that is.

After recording no strikeouts and getting knocked around for a season-high 10 hits in his previous start, also against the White Sox, Berríos was fired up entering Tuesday and reached double digits in the K column for the first time since his season debut against Milwaukee, when he struck out 12 in six no-hit frames.

Using a more offspeed-heavy game plan against the South Side lineup this time, Berríos struck out the side in the first and rebounded from a tough second inning by retiring 16 of the final 17 hitters he faced, including each of the final 10.

“I got that [last outing] in my mind,” Berríos said. “I know I didn't get any strikeouts last time, so that's what I wanted to do tonight, and I did well, so I feel really good about it."

Still, Berríos became only the fifth pitcher this millennium to take a loss in an outing in which he struck out at least 10 batters and allowed one hit or fewer in a start of seven or more innings, and the first since Rich Hill on Aug. 23, 2017.

“Yes, we need to play a cleaner version of the game,” Baldelli said. “To win a tight, good, well-pitched ballgame on both sides, you're going to have to play better on the defensive side. We could look at a few different things we did today that we need to clean up.”

That might as well be a microcosm of Berríos’ situation as the July 30 Trade Deadline approaches: the right-hander is pitching well enough to be one of the most appealing targets for a contending team -- but the Twins clearly haven’t executed well enough behind him throughout the season to be one of those clubs.

Take, for instance, that second inning, when Berríos walked a pair, but the Twins compounded the issue with a pair of sloppy errors. Following Brian Goodwin’s leadoff walk, he took off for second on ball four to Leury García -- and catcher Ryan Jeffers’ throw to second wasn’t corralled by Andrelton Simmons, allowing Goodwin to take an extra base. Two batters later, Miguel Sanó couldn’t handle a cutoff throw from the outfield, allowing García to take second.

Both runners scored on Collins’ ensuing single.

The Twins punched back with Alex Kirilloff’s RBI knock in the sixth and had a chance to equalize in the seventh, but Sanó ran into an out on the bases when he took off from second on a ground ball to shortstop, all but erasing the scoring opportunity. The Sox pulled away in the top of the eighth, once Berríos exited -- and his tough-luck loss was sealed.

"That's part of the game,” Berríos said. “It's my fault I walked three guys, and two of those three scored. That's in my control. But other than that, I felt good. Tonight, I'll go to bed and feel proud and happy of what I did tonight."