White Sox alone in first place after rallying to beat Twins

[September 01, 2020]  Luis Robert homered in the seventh inning and drove in the winning run with a ground-rule double in the ninth as the Chicago White Sox grabbed sole possession of first place in the American League Central with an 8-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night in Minneapolis.

Jose Abreu had a two-run double among his two hits, and James McCann, Nick Madrigal, Nomar Mazara and Robert also had two hits for Chicago, which won for the 12th time in 14 games and broke a first-place tie with Cleveland, which lost 2-1 at Kansas City earlier Monday.

The White Sox won it with three unearned runs in the ninth off reliever Taylor Rogers (1-3), taking advantage of a drop of a routine fly ball by Max Kepler on Edwin Encarnacion's one-out fly to right.

After McCann singled, Robert broke the 5-5 tie with his double down the left-field line. One out later, Mazara made it 8-5 with a two-run single to right.

Matt Foster (4-0) picked up the win in relief. Alex Colome pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his seventh save.

Lucas Giolito, making his first start since no-hitting the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday, retired the side in order in the first to extend his hitless innings streak to 12 and his scoreless innings streak to 18 before the Twins sent eight batters to the plate in the second.

Minnesota parlayed a walk, two hits and three errors into three runs. He left after pitching five innings, allowing four runs (two earned) on four hits and a walk while striking out eight.

Miguel Sano went 2-for-3 with a home run and three runs scored for slumping Minnesota, which lost its sixth consecutive game.

Minnesota took a 3-0 lead in the second when Eddie Rosario led off with a walk. He went to third when a single by Sano rolled past right fielder Adam Engel and went to the wall for the first error of the inning.

Luis Arraez followed with an RBI single to the gap in left-center. Marwin Gonzalez then made it 3-0 when Madrigal fielded his potential double play grounder and threw wildly into left field, allowing Sano and Arraez to score.

White Sox center fielder Luis Robert (88) reacts after hitting a solo home run during the seventh inning against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Sano made it 4-0 in the third with his seventh home run of the season to left-center.

The White Sox cut it to 4-2 in the fourth by taking advantage of the wildness of Twins starter Rich Hill, who walked the first three batters of the inning. Engel followed with a two-run single.

Chicago tied it in the sixth on Abreu's two-out, two-run double to right-center off reliever Tyler Clippard.

The Twins regained the lead, 5-4, on an RBI single by Jake Cave in the bottom half, but Robert tied it in the seventh with his 10th homer of the season, a 449-foot drive to dead center.

--Field Level Media

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