After snapping a 10-game losing streak, the White Sox have now won three straight. Their latest came Wednesday against the Twins. Right-handed reliever Keynan Middleton closed down the 6-4 win with a strikeout of Carlos Correa and, well, he was pretty fired up afterward.
Take a look:
It seems there was a reason for that beyond getting a save in an MLB win.
"I knew I was going to face Correa, and I don't like him. So it was kind of cool," Middleton said via the Associated Press. "I like that. I enjoyed that a lot. ...I mean, he's a cheater."
Correa was, of course, the Astros shortstop and cleanup hitter on the 2017 Astros who will forever be connected to the sign-stealing scandal which was revealed in the offseason between the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Correa remained with the Astros through the 2021 World Series and has since signed free agent deals with the Twins, twice.
Middleton, 29, came up with the Angels in 2017 and was with the club through 2020. He was then with the Mariners in 2021, so he spent an awful lot of time in the AL West against those incredibly successful Astros teams. Interestingly, he had great success as a rookie against the Astros in 2017, pitching to a 1.13 ERA with nine strikeouts in eight innings. He was knocked around by them a few times later, though.
Prior to the strikeout to end the game Wednesday, Correa had gone 2 for 3 with two doubles against Middleton.
Middleton is having a nice season so far, sporting a 2.89 ERA with 17 strikeouts in 9 1/3 innings.
Correa is off to a slow start, hitting .206/.287/.363 (82 OPS+) with 25 strikeouts in 102 at-bats.
The Twins sit in first place in the AL Central at 17-14 while the White Sox are in fourth place at 10-21, seven games back.
