CHICAGO — White Sox manager Pedro Grifol was on the coaching staff in Kansas City when Andrew Benintendi played for the Royals.
Grifol thinks Benintendi is best appreciated over time.
“We’re not going to really, really appreciate everything he can do until Game 162,” Grifol said, “and then everybody’s going to see how much he really brings to the table.”
Benintendi made a pair of big plays on Tuesday night, robbing Carlos Correa of a homer and hitting a game-ending single to help the White Sox to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
Hanser Alberto opened the 10th inning on second as the automatic runner and advanced on Elvis Andrus’ sacrifice. After Tim Anderson bounced to shortstop, Benintendi lined a clean single into left against Caleb Thielbar (0-1).
“I was just trying to put it in play, put a good swing on something and, at the worst, make them make a play,” Benintendi said.
It was Benintendi’s first start since he was hit on the right elbow by a pitch on Friday night.
“It’s going to be sore for a while. That’s the first time I’ve ever been hit on the elbow,” he said. “But it’s good enough to get out there and play.”
Eloy Jiménez homered and Michael Kopech pitched six effective innings as the White Sox earned their second straight win after a 10-game losing streak. Kopech got some help from Benintendi, who made a leaping grab in left on Correa’s drive in the first.
Jimmy Lambert (2-1) pitched a scoreless 10th for the win, which came hours after the White Sox made 11 roster moves.
“We dug ourselves a hole and now we probably are going to have to take our time to get back to where we want to be,” Grifol said. Minnesota wasted another stellar performance by Joe Ryan, who pitched six scoreless innings. Nick Gordon hit his first homer of the season.
The AL Central-leading Twins had won six of eight.
Ryan allowed one hit, struck out seven and walked two, lowering his ERA to 2.37. The right-hander is 8-0 with a 1.87 ERA and 70 Ks in 62 2/3 innings over 10 starts dating to last season.
“Just trying to go out there, fill up the zone and get outs,” Ryan said. “We got a really good defense.”
Ryan threw 60 of his 87 pitches for strikes. A 12-pitch walk to Anderson in his final inning played a role in the decision to take him out.
“He had an inning where he had to work a little bit,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.
Minnesota had a 1-0 lead when Jorge López replaced Ryan in the seventh. Andrew Vaughn greeted the reliever with a leadoff single and Jiménez connected for his third homer, sending a drive into the left-field stands.
But Minnesota tied it at 2 on Gordon’s first career pinch-hit homer, a leadoff drive against Alexander Colomé in the eighth.
