Royce Lewis' home run helps Twins win 13-7 over White Sox, who lose 20th in a row

MINNEAPOLIS — Playing the Chicago White Sox this year is like binge-watching a TV series that ends on a cliff-hanger. The games grow increasingly interesting, in a disaster-flick-gawking kind of way, and now that the Sox are gone, you’re surprisingly curious about how this ends for them.

The plot of Sunday’s finale at Target Field was revealed early, with eight Minnesota Twins runs in the first two innings giving away the ending, though the White Sox gamely kept chipping away at Twins pitching. The result, though, seemed almost scripted: A 13-7 Twins victory, a sweep of the three-game weekend series, a 12-1 finish to the season series — and the White Sox’s 20th consecutive loss, one away from the 1988 Baltimore Orioles’ American League record.

Chicago seems determined to make that history, though it will have to do it in Oakland, because the White Sox could hardly ask for a game more ripe for slump-busting. They piled up a dozen hits, drew six walks, advanced a runner into scoring position in eight of nine innings, and scored multiple runs against three Twins pitchers.

Yet the White Sox always seem to have a moment that makes viewers — in this case, the 28,302 on hand at Target Field — realize, “Oh, that’s why they’ll lose.” This time, it came in the first inning when Max Kepler, with two runners on base, hit an apparently routine, inning-ending ground-ball to Brooks Baldwin.

But the White Sox second baseman dropped the ball for an error, allowing Byron Buxton to score from second base. Jose Miranda followed with a single to score Royce Lewis, and Chicago, which had loaded the bases in the top of the first without scoring, suddenly found itself trailing 2-0 in what should have been a scoreless inning.

The Twins poured it on in the second against Chicago right-hander Chris Flexen (2-11) with a walk, two singles, two doubles, a triple and Royce Lewis’ three-run, opposite-field home run producing six runs and an 8-0 lead.

They added two more in the seventh, courtesy of more poor Chicago play: three walks, a single, a bases-loaded passed ball and a sacrifice fly by Ryan Jeffers.

And the Twins finished up with their daily eighth-inning eruption, adding three more runs, one of which came on Christian Vázquez’s bases-loaded walk, two more via a Willi Castro double. The Twins scored 12 eighth-inning runs in the three-game series and outscored Chicago 85-45 in the season series. That ties the second-most runs the Twins have ever scored against an opponent in a season series of 13 games or fewer, behind only the 92 they scored against Detroit in 1996.

All of that offense made it easy for the Twins to shrug off, for the moment, a second straight short start by Simeon Woods Richardson, who allowed three runs in four innings and needed 89 pitches to do it. The White Sox also scored a pair against Jorge Alcala on an Andrew Benintendi home run and two more against Randy Dobnak on a pair of RBI doubles by Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn.

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