The White Sox have had a disappointing first half to the season, but they’re only 4.5 games out of first place in the AL Central. Coming off a weekend sweep of the Giants, they can chop more into that deficit as they host the first place Twins on Monday, the start of a pretty important three-game series.

Last time the teams met, the Twins swept. But that was back in April. The White Sox are not only out for revenge, but also playing much better baseball now than they were two and a half months ago. I already mentioned the sweep of San Francisco over the weekend. The Sox punctuated it with a 13-4 win yesterday.

That the sweep took place in San Francisco makes the weekend result all the more impressive for Chicago. Minnesota had a chance to sweep over the weekend as well, but failed, losing at home to Baltimore on Sunday, 3-1.

Surprisingly, the Twins are just 3-8 their last 11 division games. Dylan Bundy isn’t very good when starting on the road. The team is 2-6 in his eight away starts and you can pin that on a 6.41 ERA and 1.526 WHIP.

Johnny Cueto has not allowed more than three runs in any of his last four starts. In three career starts vs. Minnesota, he’s 3-0 with a 0.90 ERA and has 21 strikeouts in 20 innings. By the way, both of Minnesota’s wins against Baltimore over the weekend came in the final at-bat.