Willi Castro hit a three-run homer and doubled as the Minnesota Twins held on for a 6-3 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday in Minneapolis.
Christian Vazquez and Max Kepler added one RBI apiece for the Twins, who won their third game in a row to open a four-game series.
Chicago’s Kevin Pillar and Korey Lee each hit a solo home run. The White Sox lost their sixth straight game and dropped to 3-21, the worst record in the big leagues.
Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (1-1) struck out eight batters in six innings. He allowed three runs on four hits and one walk.
Matt Bowman and Brock Stewart each followed with a hitless inning, and Griffin Jax pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to collect his third save.
White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet (1-4) gave up five runs on seven hits in four-plus innings. He fanned six and walked two.
Minnesota grabbed an early lead with a four-run second inning.
Carlos Santana walked and went to third on Austin Martin’s double. Vazquez drove in the first run with a single to right field. Two batters later, Castro ripped a three-run shot over the wall in left field.
The blast was Castro’s second homer of the season and his first since April 13.
The White Sox scored two runs in the third to halve the deficit. Pillar led off with a solo shot, his first homer of the season, and Lee followed suit two batters later with a solo blast, his second.
Braden Shewmake stole home for the White Sox to cut the deficit to 4-3 in the fifth. Chicago put on a double steal, and Vazquez, the Minnesota catcher, fired a high throw to second base that pulled Kyle Farmer off the bag. Shewmake subsequently crossed the plate for his second stolen base of the game and his fourth of the season.
The Twins added two runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it 6-3. Kepler reached on an infield single that scored Manuel Margot. In the next at-bat, Kepler advanced to third base on a single by Vazquez, and he raced in to score moments later on a wild pitch by White Sox reliever Deivi Garcia.
–Field Level Media
