Davidson homers as White Sox take down Twins

[August 21, 2018]  Matt Davidson homered and drove in three runs, and Jose Abreu had two hits and two RBIs to lead the Chicago White Sox to an 8-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night in Minneapolis.

Lucas Giolito (9-9) allowed three runs on five hits and two walks over six innings for Chicago, which won for the fifth time in six games. Giolito struck out six.

Max Kepler homered and tripled, and Jake Cave hit a two-run homer and scored three times for Minnesota, which lost for just the sixth time in its past 25 games at Target Field.

Twins starter Stephen Gonsalves (0-1) lost his major league debut. The 24-year-old left-hander, who entered the season rated as the No. 5 prospect in the Twins' organization by MLB.com, gave up four runs on six hits, two walks and a hit batter in 1 1/3 innings. He fanned three.

Gonsalves allowed the first five batters reach base in the second inning, starting with a leadoff triple to center by Nicky Delmonico, who then scored on a single by Davidson. After Yolmer Sanchez walked and Kevan Smith was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Tim Anderson blooped a single down the right field line to make it 2-0.

Gonsalves then struck out Leury Garcia, but Abreu followed with a two-run double down the left field line to increase Chicago's lead to 4-0.

After the Twins cut it to 4-1 in the bottom of the second on an RBI double by Tyler Austin, the White Sox went up 5-1 in the fourth. Abreu was picked off second by catcher Mitch Garver but was credited with stealing third when third baseman Miguel Sano lost control of the ball while trying to make the tag. Abreu got up from his slide and scored when the ball rolled onto the warning track.

Cave cut it to 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth with his sixth homer of the season off the bottom of the batters' eye in dead center, driving in Garver, who had doubled.

Chicago White Sox third baseman Matt Davidson (24) hits a two-run home run against the Minnesota Twins in the seventh inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Davidson hit a two-run homer, his 18th of the season, to center off reliever Trevor May in the seventh to extend the lead to 7-3. Daniel Palka, who had two hits, drove in Anderson with a double in the eighth to make it 8-3.

Kepler hit his 17th homer leading off the ninth against Thyago Vieira, and Ehire Adrianza added an RBI single to finish the scoring.

Before the game, Chicago manager Rick Renteria was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center for precautionary reasons after complaining about feeling lightheaded. A team official later announced that tests revealed no problems. Bench coach Joe McEwing managed the game in Renteria's absence.

--Field Level Media

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