Marwin Gonzalez and Jonathan Schoop belted solo home runs in the second inning, and Michael Pineda pitched five strong innings to lift the visiting Minnesota Twins to a 3-1 victory against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.
Minnesota's bullpen preserved the club's third straight win. Sam Dyson, Tyler Duffey and Sergio Romo each contributed a scoreless inning before Taylor Rogers pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 21st save.
The White Sox's lone run came on Tim Anderson's fourth-inning homer.
Eddie Rosario added an insurance run for the Twins with an RBI single in the eighth.
Trailing 2-1 in the seventh, Chicago put two men on with one out but was unable to score. Duffey recovered to strike out Matt Skole before getting Leury Garcia to line out to third.
White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito faced the Twins six days after defeating them with a three-hit, 12-strikeout shutout at Target Field -- an outing the All-Star declared the "best I've ever felt pitching in my life." He was slightly less dominant Tuesday against the American League Central leaders.
Giolito struck out nine, eclipsing the 200-strikeout mark in a single season for the first time in his career, but displayed some struggles with his command. After walking zero Twins on Aug. 21, Giolito issued three walks Tuesday while yielding a pair of solo home runs among the four hits he allowed in six innings.
Gonzalez smacked a homer to right field leading off the second before Schoop connected for a two-out homer to left three batters later. Giolito (14-7) was ahead in the count both times.
Pineda (10-5) surrendered one run on four hits and a walk with eight strikeouts.
Anderson cut the deficit to 2-1 with a solo shot to center field leading off the fourth. Later in the inning, James McCann and Eloy Jimenez contributed successive singles following a pair of strikeouts, but Chicago was unable to get additional runs home against Pineda, who consistently frustrated hitters with his slider.
Nelson Cruz had two hits for Minnesota, while Yolmer Sanchez had two hits for Chicago.
--Field Level Media
Minnesota | Chi. White Sox | |
Michael Pineda | Player | Lucas Giolito |
Win | W/L | Loss |
5.0 | IP | 6.0 |
8 | Strikeouts | 9 |
4 | Hits | 4 |
1.80 | ERA | 3.00 |
Minnesota | Chi. White Sox | |
Nelson Cruz | Player | Yolmer Sanchez |
2 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 2 |
.500 | Avg | .667 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Minnesota | 8 | 2 | 14 | .242 | 15 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Chi. White Sox | 6 | 1 | 9 | .188 | 11 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |