Minnesota Twins vs Chicago White Sox Prediction: Expect a close outcome

On Sunday, Major League Baseball action will take place at Target Field, featuring a matchup between the Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins. This will be the second game of a three-game series that will take place over the course of the weekend. After a strong start to the game on offense, the Twins were able to pull out a victory on Friday, which was the first game of the series.

This week, the Minnesota Twins and the Seattle Mariners played two games each and split the series. On Thursday's game, just one player, Matt Wallner, managed to collect multiple hits, going 2-for-4 at the plate. The Minnesota offense started the game strong, scoring five runs in the first inning on their way to a 9-4 victory over the White Sox. Both Alex Kirilloff and Byron Buxton had a two-for-four performance, with four runs batted in each. On Sunday, Sonny Gray will take the mound for the Twins as the team's starting pitcher. Gray has a record of 4-4 after 19 starts in 2023, with a 3.16 earned run average, 106 strikeouts, and 105.1 innings pitched. Gray's most recent start was a loss for the Mariners, in which he allowed five earned runs over 5.2 innings.

The Chicago White Sox scored a combined 17 runs over the course of the three games they played against the New York Mets this week, despite having one offensive dud game during the series against the Mets. In the game's final round, Yasmani Grandal was responsible for two runs scored and one RBI. On Friday, Yasmani Grandal blasted a home run that drove in two runs, and Andrew Benintendi hit a solo home run, but the Chicago White Sox offense was unable to make up for an early disadvantage and lost the game. On Sunday, Dylan Cease will take the mound for Chicago as the starting pitcher. Cease has made 20 starts so far and has a record of 4-3 with a 4.18 earned run average and 129 strikeouts across 107.2 innings pitched. In his most recent start, which was a victory over the Atlanta Braves, Cease recorded one earned run while pitching 5.0 innings.

In this matchup, I am going to side with the Chicago White Sox. However, Cease still needs to turn in a strong performance. Cease's previous start came after he had allowed eight earned runs over the course of 11.1 innings; that is probably not going to be enough here. The fact that Gray is having trouble right now is good news for the White Sox, as he has allowed 11 earned runs over 11.2 innings over his last two starts, at which time he has a record of 0-2 overall. The Chicago White Sox should have some success getting runners on base early in the game on Saturday. After only utilizing two pitchers (Lance Lynn and Bryan Shaw) in the first game, the White Sox bullpen is in good shape, according to the team's manager. If the White Sox put up a good performance behind Cease, I think they will be able to win game two and tie the series.