White Sox 7, Twins 0: Chris Sale matched a season high with 12 strikeouts to win his fifth straight decision and Alexei Ramirez homered for the second straight game as visiting Chicago pounded Minnesota.

Sale (10-1) allowed five singles and two walks over eight innings to improve to 3-0 with a 1.85 ERA on the road. Conor Gillaspie had three hits and scored twice while Tyler Flowers, Paul Konerko and Adam Eaton joined Ramirez with two hits apiece for the White Sox, who have outscored the Twins 21-7 three-quarters of the way through this four-game set.

Josh Willingham reached base twice and was one of only two Twins to advance past first base against Sale as Minnesota suffered its third consecutive loss and fell to 2-7 since the All-Star break. Logan Darnell (0-1) fanned seven in his first career big-league start, but was tagged for seven runs and 11 hits over five-plus frames.

After Flowers scored Gillaspie with a two-out single in the top of the second to put Chicago in front, Sale stranded the only runner he allowed to get into scoring position through 7 2/3 innings in the bottom half by getting Eduardo Nunez to ground out to end the inning. Jose Abreu delivered a sacrifice fly in the third to make it 2-0 before Ramirez lined his 10th homer of the season – a two-run shot – off the foul pole in left in the fifth.

The White Sox added three more in the sixth when Flowers followed singles from Konerko and Gillaspie with a run-scoring double down the line in left and Alejandro De Aza ended Darnell’s outing one batter later with a grounder past second to plate another run. Ryan Pressly came on in relief and promptly yielded Gordon Beckham’s sacrifice fly to close the book on Darnell.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Abreu reached on an infield single in the ninth to extend his hitting streak to 16 games. … Minnesota has dropped 12 of its last 16 at home since sweeping the White Sox in a four-game set at Target Field from June 19-22. … Sale has posted a 1.78 ERA during his seven-game unbeaten streak.