The Minnesota Twins granted major-league debuts to three players tonight. The Sox had a former Cy Young winner on the mound. It proceeded as expected.
Granted, Jake Peavy is far from ace shape, but Brian Runge provided a wide strike zone all night long, and he certainly took advantage of it. Peavy struck out nine over 6 1/3 innings, and White Sox pitchers racked up 14 K's overall as they shut out the Twins for a second straight game. Peavy also picked up where Phil Humber and Zach Stewart left off, extending the starters' scoreless innings streak to 22 1/3.
Whenever the Twins threatened, Peavy shut them down. He stranded a runner in scoring position in each of the first four innings, and on the night, Minnesota finished 0-for-10 in such situations.
Meanwhile, the Sox went a highly efficient 2-for-2 with runners in scoring position, and Alejandro De Aza factored in to both.
In the second, he gave the Sox a 1-0 lead when he lined a two-out single to left, which scored Adam Dunn. De Aza made sure of it by pulling the classic White Sox move, getting thrown out at second after daring the Twins to cut off the throw.
De Aza led off the fifth with a line-drive single to center that rookie Joe Benson (one of the first-gamers) played into a triple with an ill-advised dive. Brent Morel followed with a single to center to make it 2-0.
And in between, cleanup hitter Alex Rios jumped on a hanging curve by Liam Hendriks (first career start) for a no-doubt homer to left, his ninth of the year. While Ozzie Guillen should be criticized for batting Rios and Dunn fourth and fifth in the lineup, they came through -- Rios with the homer, and Dunn with three walks.
Sergio Santos closed it out with his 29th save, redeeming himself after allowing the only run the Twins have scored in the first three games of this series. He struck out two batters during a 1-2-3 ninth.
Notes:
*Alexei Ramirez dropped a perfect throw from Tyler Flowers that would've had Trevor Plouffe out by 10 feet. Peavy managed to strand the runner.
*Dunn didn't give a pop-up by the stands an acceptable effort, which also cost Peavy an out. He pitched around it, too.
*Joe Mauer was booed after Matt Thornton struck him out with a slider in the dirt. This has been a sad season for both teams.
Record: 71-69 | Box score | Play-by-play