Cruz powers Twins' G1 comeback over Sox

CHICAGO -- Nelson Cruz doesn’t look like he wants to leave the American League Central.

The 41-year-old designated hitter figures to be one of the Twins’ likeliest candidates to be moved at the coming July 30 Trade Deadline, but seeing as he’s still in a Minnesota uniform, he continued his domination of the division anyway on Monday afternoon against the White Sox. First came a game-tying solo homer in the sixth inning, which sent the game to extras, during which Cruz lifted a go-ahead sacrifice fly to center as the Twins won, 3-2, in eight frames in the first half of a doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The Twins loaded the bases in the eighth, with automatic runner Gilberto Celestino moving to third on Luis Arraez’s leadoff single before inducing a botched fielder’s choice attempt on a Josh Donaldson ground ball, setting up Cruz’s sac fly and Jorge Polanco’s RBI single that improved the Twins’ record to 6-9 in extra innings this season.

Cruz’s 375-foot blast over the left-field wall off Lance Lynn in the sixth marked his 15th against the White Sox since he joined the Twins before the 2019 season, one shy of his mark against Kansas City in that span. He entered the game with a .664 slugging percentage and 1.074 OPS against the AL Central since becoming a Twin and snapped a 12-game homer drought, matching his longest of the season.

Though Cruz might not be around to see the Twins continue to test their young pitchers in the coming months, his blast came in support of effective rookie right-hander Griffin Jax, who turned in the best outing of his young career by allowing one hit -- a Tim Anderson solo homer -- in four innings against the first-place Sox. He was pulled not long after manager Rocco Baldelli and head athletic trainer Michael Salazar came to the mound following the fourth inning to examine a blister on Jax's pitching hand.

“It wasn’t so much physical worry as much as mental,” Jax said. “I was just worried if I continued to go out there with the blister that I wouldn’t be able to throw my pitches with as much intent or aggressiveness as I had been early in the game."

Armed with increased usage of his slider and more induced vertical break to his fastball, a point of emphasis he attacked as early as Spring Training, the 26-year-old generated 16 swinging strikes with his 68 pitches, the third-highest whiff total in the first four frames of a game by any Twins pitcher in the Statcast era (since 2015).

"A lot of it's just taking every single opportunity I can get and just proving not only to myself, but to the coaching staff and the front office, that I do belong up here and that I can help this team win ballgames,” Jax said.