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The White Sox started Chris Sale. The Twins started Logan Darnell.
A huge advantage on paper played out in practice, as the Condor carried the Sox to their fourth shutout of the season and third straight (easy) victory over Minnesota at Target Field.
Sale didn't mess around, allowing just five singles (two infield) and two walks over eight innings while striking out 12. He was tougher on the Twins as the game went on, because he had only recorded three strikeouts over the first three innings. The Twins only got two shots at Sale with runners in scoring position, and the second one was his last batter of the game. He threw a changeup for his 112th and final pitch, getting Chris Colabello to swing over the top of it for strike three. Daniel Webb pitched around a one-out double to preserve the shutout.
Sale improved to 10-1 on the year and lowered his ERA to 1.88. Caw.
The White Sox offense needed a 1⅔ innings to get accustomed to Darnell, who made his second career MLB appearance and first start. He cruised through the first five outs of the game, but a two-out double by Conor Gillaspie and a smoked single by Tyler Flowers gave the Sox a 1-0 lead.
From there, the Sox gradually increased the weight. Jose Abreu followed consecutive one-out singles with a sac fly in the third, Alexei Ramirez pulled a hanging changeup off the screen on the left field foul pole for a two-run shot in the fifth for a 4-0 lead, and they wouldn't let him record an out in the fifth. Paul Konerko singled, Gillaspie singled, Flowers doubled and Alejandro De Aza singled to send Darnell to the showers, and everybody but De Aza scored to make Darnell's first start one to forget.
Bullet points:
*Abreu waited until the ninth inning to extend his hit streak to 17 games. That's when he smoked a grounder off Glen Perkins' left buttcheek for an infield single.
*Dayan Viciedo followed up a four-hit game on Friday with an 0-for-5 night. He was the only White Sox without a hit, as 14 hits were spread out among eight batters. They didn't walk once, but they didn't need to.
Record: 51-54 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights