White Sox 3, Twins 0: KnightSox have Buehrle's back

Mark Buehrle continued his season-long dominance of the Twins, with a little bit of help from his minor-league friends.

Buehrle threw 7 2/3 easy, breezy innings, emerging victorious from a rapid-fire pitchers' duel with Kevin Slowey. Slowey nearly pitched him pitch-for-pitch, but unlike Buehrle, he didn't have the support of the Charlotte Connection.

Your 5-6-7 part of the order, Dayan Viciedo, Alejandro De Aza and Tyler Flowers -- all called up from Triple-A, two of them far too recently -- played a big part in all three White Sox runs.

First, it was De Aza and Flowers teaming up for the only run Buehrle needed. De Aza got a gift from Trevor Plouffe, who misread a well-struck flyball and played it into a "double." De Aza didn't let it go to waste, stealing third without a throw and coming home on a sac fly by Flowers for a 1-0 lead after two innings.

In the seventh, Viciedo led off with a single past Danny Valencia at third. He moved to second on a sac bunt by De Aza, then came around to score on Flowers' double to deep center.

And in the eighth, Viciedo would earn an RBI himself, but mainly because Alexei Ramirez manufactured an entire run for himself. Ramirez led off with a single, and made it to second by tagging up on Ben Revere's weak arm on a routine fly to center field.

Two batters later, Viciedo hit a nubber towards short. Ramirez was off on contact with two outs, and as he rounded third, he saw that Valencia couldn't come up with it -- and he had no backup. Tsuyoshi Nishioka was drifting out of the play, and Ramirez seized the opportunity, scoring standing up.

Buehrle, Jesse Crain and Sergio Santos wouldn't need the insurance runs, but they probably appreciated them just the same.

Outside of some problems pitching to Nishioka -- two walks and a single by one of the league's worst players -- Buehrle had an easy night. He didn't walk anybody else, and he allowed just four singles. He only allowed a few hard-hit balls, and for the second time in three games, White Sox pitching didn't allow a baserunner to make it past second.

He also pitched around a two-out error by Brent Morel, who rushed a side-armed throw when he had time to plant and go over the top. Valencia reached on a "single" and moved to second on the E5, but Buehrle left him there by getting a high flyout to center.

He left the game with two outs in the eighth, as Ozzie Guillen chose to let somebody else face longtime Buehrle nemesis Michael Cuddyer. He went with Cuddyer's ex-teammate, and Crain came back from a 2-0 count to strike him out with a great slider.

Notes:

*In 30 1/3 innings against Minnesota this year, Buehrle has allowed just one earned run.

*The KnightSox went 5-for-8 with a walk, three RBI and two runs scored. The rest of the lineup went 3-for-21.

*Oh, and Viciedo also stole his first base of the season. The throw beat him, but Nishioka never tagged him.

*The Sox are two games over .500 for the first time since April 13.

Record: 67-65 | Box score | Play-by-play