White Sox 8, Twins 5: Chris Sale getting used to support

Bullet points, because I'm supposed to be on vacation.

*Chris Sale picked up his third consecutive victory thanks to another generous showing by the offense. He allowed three runs over seven innings, and all of them came in the third. Joe Mauer played a big part -- he was a couple feet away from hitting a three-run homer, and instead had to settle for a double off the top of the wall in right center. It didn't matter for Minnesota, because Josh Willingham doubled him home anyway, giving the Twins a 3-1 lead.

Besides that crooked number, Sale found his A-game, striking out eight while allowing just one walk. He's 9-11 with a 2.78 ERA, which looks better than the 6-11 record with which he opened the month.

*The offense punched back immediately with a four-run fourth, and it didn't start until Adam Dunn doubled off Andrew Albers with two outs. Avasail Garcia doubled up on the two-baggers with a rifled shot down the left-field line. Jeff Keppinger kept the inning alive with a walk, and Dayan Viciedo got his hands in on a decent cutter and powered it over the wall in left. His 10th homer was good for a three-run shot, and gave the Sox a 5-3 lead.

*From that point on, the Sox offense managed to keep the game just out of reach -- with some help from the Twins defense. Willingham turned a towering-but-routine Dunn flyout to left into an RBI double when he lost it the twilight. That run loomed large, because Ryan Doumit's two-run homer off Nate Jones only ended up narrowing the lead to one, instead of tying the game.

Alejandro De Aza got those runs back in the top of the ninth, turning and burning on a Casey Fien slider for a two-run shot to right.

*Addison Reed pitched a 1-2-3 ninth on seven pitches for his 30th save.

*Gordon Beckham and Alexei Ramirez finally teamed up for a spectacular double play:

Please fill in other key details if I missed any. Danke.

Record: 48-74 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights