White Sox 13, Twins 11 (12 innings): Fast start, furious finish

Hawk Harrelson celebrated his 75th birthday in the booth and boy did he have a crazy game to call.

For the eighth game in a row, the White Sox started the game's scoring. In the first, Melky Cabrera's grounder at the third baseman, Miguel Sano should have started a double play attempt. Instead, it went through the five-hole on an error and put runners on for Jose Abreu. Red-hot since August 1st, Abreu crushed a hanging breaking ball 432 feet to left for his 21st home run, giving the Sox a 3-0 lead.

Then in the second, Kevan Smith when 5-hole on shortstop Jorge Polanco for Minnesota's second error of the game. Smith would advance to second on Andrew Albers wild pitch. After Carlos Sanchez had muscled a deep fly-out to center, Smith tagged up to third base for Adam Eaton. All Eaton could muster was a grounder to Sano, but with the contact play on Smith headed to home. Sano threw it towards the first base side of the home plate, and catcher John Ryan Murphy tried to spin and make the tag but missed, giving the Sox a 4-0 lead.

Then hell broke loose. Again.

It started with the dreaded leadoff walk to Trevor Plouffe. Then singles by Max Kepler and Sano to loaded the bases. With nobody out, Ranaudo was able to strikeout Eddie Rosario and induce a short fly to Murphy for two outs. An opportunity to get himself out of a jam, Ranaudo instead made a mistake to Byron Buxton, and like many at-bats this series Buxton didn't miss as he hit a grand slam to center, tieing the game 4-4.

Then in the third, Minnesota tacked on two more runs thanks to some lucky bounces and bad defense. Joe Mauer lead it off with a double and would end up on third base thanks to a swing strikeout by Kepler that got away from Smith. With runners on the corners, Sano's grounder in the hole made Anderson dive for it, but couldn't make a throw in time giving the Twins a 5-4 lead. Anderson would make a nifty play in foul territory catching a fly ball that was deflected by Todd Frazier's glove. With two outs Murphy hit a fly ball to shallow center that Eaton misread letting it drop right in front of him. Kepler scored, and Twins lead 6-4.

In the fourth, Dozier hit his 35th home run of the season, and 18th since July 31st, to make it 7-4.

Chicago would get a run back in the fifth. After Melky Cabrera's 33rd double, Abreu flicked a two-strike pitch to shallow right for his fourth RBI of the day cutting the lead to 7-5. But, in the bottom half, Ranaudo gave up another home run - this time to Murphy for his 1st in 2016, and a double to Buxton. Robin Ventura replaced Ranaudo with - you guessed it - Matt Albers. Shockingly, Albers gave up a double to the first man he faced in Dozier, who drove in Buxton making it 9-5.

Not going down without a fight, Jose Abreu hit his second three-run homer of the day in the seventh. Now a 9-8 game thanks to a career-high 7 RBI by Abreu. But, in the bottom half, Sano put an Albers fastball into the upper deck to make it 10-8.

Avisail Garcia snapped a 0 for 20 slump with a lead-off double off the facade in right field in the eighth. Omar Narvaez worked a walk, and the Sox were suddenly in business with runners on first and second. Carlos Sanchez hit a short chopper to first that moved the runners up 90 feet into scoring position for the top of the order.

On a 3-0 pitch, all Eaton could muster was a ground ball to first that resulted in Garcia scoring in exchange for the second out. Now 10-9 with the game-tying run on third, Twins manager Paul Molitor called for his closer Brandon Kintzler to face Tim Anderson. All it took was three pitches for Kintzler to punch out the rookie, and preserve the one-run lead.

Then the ninth happened, and the Sox got the best of Kintzler.

It started with a Melky Cabrera walk. Abreu going for this third home run of the day hit a weak grounder up the third base line that Sano's only option was to first base, moving Cabrera to second. Frazier followed that up with a sharp line drive to left field, but it was hit too hard for Cabrera to score. With runners on the corners, Justin Morneau hit for Tyler Saladino. Kintzler didn't want any piece of the former Twin great and walked Morneau on four straight pitches to load the bases for Avi.

Perhaps that double in the previous inning straighten out Avi because he came through with a clutch two-run single scoring Cabrera and Frazier to complete the comeback, with the Sox now leading 11-10.

Now to close it out was David Robertson, who walked Sano to lead off the bottom half. He followed that up with a three-pitch strikeout of Eddie Rosario. Molitor called Kurt Suzuki to pinch hit against the Sox closer. Jordan Schaefer pinch ran for Sano and would score on Suzuki's double that split the gap in left to tie the game, 11-11.

With the winning run on second, at bat was Buxton who had nine hits already this series, but all he could do is hit a can-of-corn in right. With two outs and Dozier up to bat, Robertson intentionally walked him to face Jorge Polanco, who flew out to left to end the threat.

After a scoreless 10th and 11th inning, White Sox put together a threat in the 12th. Omar Narvaez led off with a single and moved to second base thanks to a sac bunt by Sanchez. Eaton was having a bad day going 0 for 6, before hitting a single to left. Rosario did a good job of forcing third base coach Joe McEwing hold up Narvaez, but his errant throw to home allowed Eaton to move up to second base.

That hurt when Tim Anderson doubled down the left field line to give the Sox a 13-11 lead.

Juan Minaya struggled in the bottom half, walking Polanco and Mauer. Tommy Kahnle came in to close the game out and got Trevor Plouffe to check swing a soft liner back at Kahnle. He made the catch but couldn't make the play at second for a double play. After striking out Kepler, Kahnle threw a wild pitch moving the runners to scoring position. Then he walked Eduardo Escobar to load the bases.

Eddie Rosario hit a comeback up the middle, that ricocheted off Kahnle's foot to Frazier who threw out Rosairo for the 1-5-3 groundout, ending the game.

Record: 65-71| Box Score | Play-by-Play | Highlights