None of that mattered much once the White Sox offense got rolling. Minnesota clawed back with three runs in the bottom of the first and one more in the second to tie it at 4, and for a moment Target Field had a real game on its hands.
Colson Montgomery put it away in the middle innings, connecting for a three-run homer — his 28th of the season — that snapped the tie for good. Minnesota got a couple of longballs of its own, a two-run shot from Lee and a solo blast from Clemens, but out-hitting Chicago 12-10 didn't translate into out-scoring them. The White Sox tacked on single runs in the 4th, 5th and 8th to keep the margin comfortable, with Garrett Taylor working 2.2 scoreless out of the bullpen to help close it out.
Zoom out and this result fits the season each team has had. Chicago came in having taken 2 of its last 3 from Texas and split a two-game set with the Mets, and wins like this are exactly why the White Sox sit atop the AL Central with a real cushion. Minnesota, on the other hand, spent its trade deadline adding arms like Jeff Hoffman and A.J. Minter with October in mind, and it's now dropped 4 of its last 5 — a fade nobody in the front office signed up for when they were buying in July.
Buxton's health is the swing factor for whatever's left of Minnesota's season — when he's right, this lineup looks completely different. For Chicago, the bigger question is whether Castillo can find the form that once made him a trade chip on winning teams, because a 5-plus ERA in a contending rotation is a problem a division lead doesn't fix by itself.