Byron Buxton tied the game with a ninth-inning leadoff homer and Alex Kirilloff delivered a game-ending RBI single with two outs to lift the host Minnesota Twins to a 6-5 win against the reeling Chicago White Sox on Tuesday.
Minnesota scored two runs each in the eighth and ninth innings as the White Sox lost for the fifth straight game.
Buxton, who had three hits, led off the ninth with a game-tying home run against Steven Wilson (1-2). Wilson recovered to get the next out before walking Carlos Santana. Ryan Jeffers followed with a bloop double, benefiting from a misread by Chicago left fielder Andrew Benintendi.
That set the stage for Kirilloff two batters later.
Eloy Jimenez had two hits, including a three-run home run, and Erick Fedde gave up one run on three hits in six innings for the White Sox. The right-hander struck out a career-best 11 while issuing zero walks and retired the final 16 batters he faced.
A sour outing by the Chicago relief corps wiped away Fedde’s opportunity for a victory.
Minnesota used a two-out rally to score the game’s first run. After Fedde struck out the first two batters he faced, Trevor Larnach lined a double to right field and scored one batter later when Max Kepler drove him in with a single.
Jimenez connected for his second home run of the season in the fourth to give the White Sox a 3-1 lead. Danny Mendick led off the inning with the first of his two hits and Gavin Sheets walked ahead of Jimenez’s blast against Twins starter Pablo Lopez.
Minnesota trimmed the advantage to 3-2 when Santana hit a two-out RBI double off Jordan Leasure in the seventh.
Benintendi answered with a two-out, two-run single in the eighth to extend the lead to 5-2.
The Twins drew closer on Larnach’s two-run home run against Michael Kopech in the eighth.
Jay Jackson (1-1) was the winner, pitching two innings of one-run relief with four strikeouts.
Lopez allowed three runs and four hits in four innings with two walks and six strikeouts.
–Field Level Media
