The Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins waited through a 3-hour, 20-minute rain delay before the first pitch Wednesday at Rate Field.
During the storms, Sox starter Sean Burke did his best to make sure he stayed “on top of my stuff.”
“(I’m) staying loose every now and again,” Burke said. “I’m not sitting down too much. I felt good going into the game.”
Once the game began, a couple of Burke sliders caught just a little too much of the plate, resulting in home runs for Byron Buxton and Harrison Bader.
Brooks Baldwin homered for the Sox, but that was the team’s lone run in a 6-1 loss in front of 10,193.
“The command of (the slider) was not the greatest,” Burke said. “The two they hit (for the home runs) were just middle middle sliders that get hit pretty often when you throw them in those spots. Going back to half way through last year, my biggest thing was I want to be able to beat guys in (the) zone. I don’t want to beat myself. I don’t want to put guys on base.
“So I think (it’s) just kind of getting back to being a little bit finer with some of those pitches and not just throwing them over the heart of the plate.”
Burke had a brilliant outing in the March 27 season opener against the Los Angeles Angels, tossing six scoreless innings. He allowed career highs in runs (six) and hits (seven) in 4 1/3 innings Wednesday.
“Just a couple of pitches got away from (Burke),” Sox manager Will Venable said. “He commanded the fastball well. I thought he did a good job with the curveball. Just a couple of pitches he wasn’t able to execute.”
Burke received a scare in the third when Matt Wallner’s liner back to the mound hit him in the back of his right knee. He shook it off and remained in the game.
“I don’t think it’s anything too serious,” Burke said. “Probably just be sore for a couple of days. Not worried about it too much.”
Between his four MLB appearances (three starts) last season and the season-opening outing, Burke had surrendered just two home runs.
The Twins matched that total Wednesday. Buxton launched a 446-foot home run to left-center on a 3-1 slider in the first inning. It was the 22nd career home run for Buxton against the Sox, his most against any opponent.
“He’s one of the best players in this league,” Venable said. “He can beat you in a lot of different ways. And that homer was pretty impressive there. He’s a good player. He’s going to impact the game.”
Bader connected for a three-run shot to left on a first-pitch slider with two outs in the fourth. It was Bader’s second three-run home run of the series.
The Twins added two more runs on RBI doubles from Buxton and Ty France in the fifth.
The Sox only had three hits — all singles — through six innings against Twins starter Pablo López. Baldwin provided a brief spark in the seventh with a solo home run to right-center against the right-hander.
“First at-bat I was right there on the fastballs the whole time (grounding out), and the second at-bat he threw me a good changeup first pitch and I flew out to left,” Baldwin said. “So going up there for the third at-bat, he’s a guy that likes to get in the strike zone really early, so I was kind of sitting on a changeup there to start. So got one elevated over the heart of the plate (on the first pitch), put a good swing on ...
