Twins 7, White Sox 2: Back below .500

For a moment, it looked like the White Sox might finally get the best of Hector Santiago.

Then the Twins got the best of Mike Pelfrey. And then Santiago shut the door.

And then the White Sox were back under .500.

Pelfrey took a 2-0 lead to the mound in the fourth and lost his command. The first three Twins made him pay, going single-single-homer to flip the game to a 3-2 Minnesota lead.

Pelfrey wobbled in the fifth, which meant that Rick Renteria had to replace the depleted back end of the rotation with the front end of a depleted bullpen. Dan Jennings cleaned up Pelfrey’s mess in the fifth, but he got stuck in his own jam by giving up singles to three of the first four batters.

When the last of that bunch, Ehire Adrianza, singled home two runs and took second on an Avisail Garcia error to give the Twins a 5-2 lead, Renteria opted for low-leverage Chris Beck instead of mid-leverage Anthony Swarzak. Beck then started his night with three straight hits for two more runs before settling in.

The good news is that neither of those runs mattered. The bad news is that neither of those runs mattered. After bombarding Santiago for three hits in the third inning, the White Sox didn’t pick up another hit until Tim Anderson singled through the right side ... with two outs in the ninth.

That third-inning burp looked promising. Omar Narvaez earned a walk with one out, and Willy Garcia, Tyler Saladino and Jose Abreu all smacked solid line drives. But they had nothing to show for the rest of the game, aside from some decent plate appearances. The Sox drew five walks, including a couple by Narvaez and one from Willy Garcia. Abreu drew a walk and made strong contact in his other three trips. Yet they only had four hits, and all were singles.

Santiago is now 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA against his former team in his last five starts against them. He threw seven shutout innings in the lone no-decision.

Record: 15-16 | Box score | Highlights