David Sandlin pitched six innings of one-run ball in his major league debut and Munetaka Murakami homered for the third straight game as the host Chicago White Sox blasted the Minnesota Twins 15-2 on Wednesday.

Chicago secured at least a split of the four-game series behind a sterling outing from Sandlin, a right-hander acquired in a February trade with Boston which also brought reliever Jordan Hicks to the White Sox.

An 18-hit attack propelled Chicago. Sam Antonacci and Randal Grichuk collected three hits apiece. Chase Meidroth hit a seventh-inning grand slam off Travis Adams before Murakami followed immediately with his 20th home run, tied for the American League lead.

Sandlin yielded a leadoff homer to Minnesota’s Byron Buxton two pitches into the game but didn’t buckle after that. He retired the next 18 Twins in a row, the most for a White Sox pitcher in his big league debut over at least the last 100 years.

Sandlin (1-0) struck out four while throwing 41 of his 61 pitches for strikes. He needed just eight pitches in the fourth and showed similar efficiency after the White Sox racked up five runs in the fifth, sandwiching two flyouts around a strikeout over 10 pitches to end his outing.

Chicago recalled Sandlin from Triple-A Charlotte on Tuesday after placing fellow rookie starter Noah Schultz (right knee patellar tendinitis) on the 15-day injured list.

Twins lefty Connor Prielipp sputtered in his seventh career start, allowing six runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. Prielipp (1-3) walked three against five strikeouts.

He gave up the lead in the second, as Antonacci grounded a two-run single off Prielipp’s glove to score two.

Colson Montgomery extended the lead to 3-1 with an RBI double in the third. Edgar Quero, Meidroth, Murakami and Montgomery had two hits apiece for the White Sox. Antonacci had three RBIs and Grichuk added two.

After Buxton’s homer, the White Sox pitching staff retired 21 straight Minnesota batters before Kody Clemens connected against Brandon Eisert for a leadoff home run in the eighth. The White Sox allowed three hits, with two coming in the eighth inning.

Chicago has won eight of the past nine meetings against Minnesota dating back to last season.

–Field Level Media

Pete Golding’s Ole Miss program is being investigated by the NCAA for tampering in relation to its recruitment of linebacker Luke Ferrelli, but on Wednesday, Golding openly called into question why other schools weren’t being investigated as well.

Asked about the tampering case involving Ferrelli at the Southeastern Conference meetings in Miramar Beach, Fla., Golding talked about Ferrelli becoming a replacement for another player who departed in the portal, and with dubious circumstances surrounding the latter’s departure.

Golding referred to the departing player as a three-year starter, a thinly veiled reference to former starting linebacker TJ Dottery, who transferred to LSU — now led by former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin — on the final day of the portal window.

“The kid we’re talking about with tampering was on an official visit that weekend,” Golding said of Ferrelli before turning his attention to Dottery moments later. “We’re not comparing that to a guy that was a three-year starter somewhere, that wasn’t in the portal that’s at a new school now? What are we doing?

“There’s an enforcement on this that just took an OV, but there’s not an enforcement of this, that he just ruined his brand over three years, who’s been tampered with his entire time?”

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney held a press conference in late January alleging tampering by Ole Miss with Ferrelli, who committed to transfer to the Tigers from Cal and had even arrived on the Clemson campus before departing for Ole Miss a short time later.

Dottery started for the Rebels the past two years, but he became the fourth player to defect from the program to follow Kiffin to LSU, who hired Kiffin away from Ole Miss in the midst of its 2025 playoff run.

Golding, who took over when Kiffin left, took another shot at Kiffin and LSU when he related the issue of tampering to coaches as well as players, an issue the U.S. Senate is attempting to address with its “Lane Kiffin Rule,” meant to limit coaches’ mobility during the season.

“My thing when they talk about tampering, you don’t think the coaches get tampered with?” Golding asked rhetorically. “You don’t think ADs meet with head coaches? I mean we’re talking about this new Kiffin rule and this s—, who do you think’s meeting with these guys and offering them the job before?

“So, I’m not getting into all of that, but holy cow.”

Ole Miss hosts Kiffin and LSU in Oxford, Miss. on Sept. 19.

–Field Level Media

Gerrit Cole scattered four hits and struck out 10 over 6 2/3 stellar innings and Ben Rice had three RBIs as the visiting New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep with a 7-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.

Cole (1-0) did not yield a walk during his efficient 79-pitch outing as the Yankees beat the Royals for the 13th straight time. His second start of the year was even more impressive than his first, when he tossed six scoreless innings versus Tampa Bay on Friday in his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery after the 2024 World Series.

Rice and Paul Goldschmidt each had two hits and Ryan McMahon clubbed a two-run homer in the eighth for New York, which has won four straight. The Yankees outscored Kansas City 26-4 this week — and 50-10 while sweeping the six-game season series.

Royals starter Noah Cameron (2-4) allowed two runs and four hits over five innings. Maikel Garcia poked two of the Royals’ four hits as they dropped to 3-13 since May 10.

Kansas City threatened Cole in the third, when Michael Massey roped a double into the right-field corner for the game’s first hit. However, he was thrown out at the plate by Aaron Judge on Garcia’s two-out single to right.

Cameron, meanwhile, was perfect through the first three innings. Then Goldschmidt opened the fourth with a single to left, then scored on Rice’s triple that went off the left field fence and caromed away from Kansas City’s Isaac Collins. Judge’s sacrifice fly made it 2-0.

Cameron’s night ended after he yielded another single to Goldschmidt and walked Rice to open the sixth. However, John Schreiber got Judge to ground into a 6-4-3 double play and Cody Bellinger to fly out.

The Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh. Nick Mears got Jose Caballero to line out and fanned Austin Wells, but he walked Goldschmidt to force home a run. The Royals brought in reliever Alex Lange, but Rice broke things open with a two-run single to right.

–Field Level Media