Minnesota Twins vs Chicago White Sox

Minnesota jumped on Chicago starter Jordan Hicks immediately. Hicks, making only his second start since moving back from the bullpen, recorded just two outs and was charged with three earned runs. Ryan Jeffers led off the bottom of the first with a double off the wall. Josh Bell followed with an RBI single to right-centre (105.4 mph exit velocity), and Trevor Larnach cleared the bases with a two-run double to make it 3-0 before Hicks exited.

Luke Keaschall added a solo home run in the third — his ninth of the year — pushing the lead to 4-0. The Twins tacked on another in the seventh on Bell's second RBI single of the day, scoring Jeffers who had reached on a walk.

Chicago's only run came in the ninth. Sam Antonacci led off with a double, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on Braden Montgomery's two-out single. Jeff Hoffman relieved Matthews and closed it out.

Hicks' implosion in the first inning. The White Sox opener allowed four of the five batters he faced to reach base, and the three-run deficit gave Matthews a cushion he never needed to protect. Hicks (2-2) threw just 12 of his 25 pitches for strikes.

• Zebby Matthews, MIN (W, 9-8): 8.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 103 pitches. Matthews generated 11 ground-ball outs against seven fly-ball outs, working efficiently and never allowing a White Sox runner past second until the ninth. His season ERA sits at 4.58 across 28 starts.
• Josh Bell, MIN: 2-for-4, 2 RBI, SB. Bell's two-run single in the first set the tone. He also stole a base, his second of the season.
• Luke Keaschall, MIN: 2-for-3, HR (9), RBI, BB. The rookie right-fielder is now batting .274 with a .364 OBP.
• Ryan Jeffers, MIN: 1-for-3, 2B, 2 R, BB. Jeffers reached base three times and scored twice from the leadoff spot.

Player of the Game: Zebby Matthews

The 9-6 hit disparity understates how thoroughly Matthews controlled this game. Minnesota's three-run first was fuelled by a Hicks meltdown (25 pitches, zero strikeouts), but from the second inning onward, the Twins managed only single runs in the third and seventh against Chicago's bullpen. The story was Matthews: he faced 30 batters, threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of them, and the White Sox managed just one extra-base hit (Antonacci's double) all afternoon.

Jose Urquidy gave Chicago 5 innings of solid relief (1 ER, 3 H, 1 K), but by then the damage was done.

The Twins improved to 65-72, still well back in the AL Central but playing spoiler to a White Sox team (72-64) fighting for playoff position. Chicago dropped a game it needed on a day their offence never got going.

Next up: The Twins host the White Sox again on Monday, August 31, for the second game of this series.

Matthews pitched like a frontline arm. One of his finest outings of 2026 came at exactly the wrong time for Chicago's playoff push — clean, efficient, and never threatened.