CHICAGO \u2014 KFAN: Kyle Farmer hit a two-run homer to cap Minnesota\u2019s four-run seventh inning, Kenta Maeda threw seven strong innings and the Twins routed the Chicago White Sox 10-2 on Thursday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rookies Edouard Julien and Royce Lewis hit solo shots in the fourth to get the Twins rolling and help first-place Minnesota (77-70) extend its lead in the AL Central to eight games over idle Cleveland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matt Wallner, another Twins rookie, drove in two runs with a single in the seventh break to break open a tight game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The newcomers \u2014 the 24-year-old Julien and Lewis, and 25-year-old Minnesota native Wallner \u2014 are among the reasons why the Twins are closing in on the division title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur younger players, they\u2019ve started their major league careers very well,\u201d Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have as many wins if those guys did not come up and get the job done. So that was another good example.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex Kirilloff added two RBIs on his second hit of the night as the Twins tacked on four unearned runs in the ninth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chicago\u2019s Andrew Vaughn hit his 20th homer, a two-run shot in the seventh, for the only runs off the 35-year-old Maeda (5-7) who allowed four hits, struck out eight and walked one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The veteran right-hander from Japan matched his season-high in innings and threw 105 pitches, the most after missing the 2022 season after Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s very encouraging,\u201d Maeda said through a translator. \u201cAnd just to pitch all even innings was a plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel like I had command for all my pitches today and I was being aggressive with early counts,\u201d added Maeda, who returned to the IL in May and June this season. \u201cI think that was the key to success tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Josh Winder pitched the eighth, and Brent Headrick worked around Eloy Jim\u00e9nez\u2019s double in the ninth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jos\u00e9 Ure\u00f1a (0-6) limited the Twins to two runs and three hits until the seventh. The right-hander made his second start for the White Sox after signing a minor league free-agent deal in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the night, however, Ure\u00f1a was tagged with six runs on seven hits in 6 1\/3 innings. He struck out eight and walked none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe line he ended up with doesn\u2019t really tell the story on his outing,\u201d Chicago manager Pedro Grifol said. \u201cIt was a pretty encouraging outing for him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ure\u00f1a retired the first nine hitters before Julien lined is 13th homer over the right-center fence to open the fourth. After Ure\u00f1a struck out the next two batters, Lewis drilled his 13th to left-center to make it 2-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With one out in the seventh, the Twins used four straight hits off Ure\u00f1a to up their lead to 6-0. Kirilloff singled, then advanced to third on Willi Castro\u2019s double.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both scored on Wallner\u2019s single. Farmer, at shortstop in place of the resting Carlos Correa, followed with his 11th homer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe did a good job of staying at it today,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cMaeda was very good. We popped a couple of home runs and kind of added on late. I like the add-ons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vaughn\u2019s shot got Chicago on the board in the bottom half. Jorge Polanco had an RBI single and Lewis walked with the bases loaded in the ninth before Kirilloff\u2019s single finished the rout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Twins recalled RHP Bailey Ober on from Triple-A St. Paul on Thursday and placed him on the taxi squad. Manager Rocco Baldelli said he planned to start Ober on Friday at Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Twins optioned the 6-foot-9 Ober to their farm team Aug. 28 to restrict his workload. The 28-year-old righty has pitched 122 2\/3 innings this season, a career high for him at any professional level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ober went 3-0 with a 1.78 ERA in his first five starts this season, but was 6-6 with a 3.67 ERA through 22 starts when sent down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Twins had the luxury of making of sending Ober to St. Paul after they added Dallas Keuchel to their rotation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twins: 3B Lewis appeared to suffer an injury after throwing out Andrew Vaughn with a strong throw in the fifth. He was checked by training staff remained in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White Sox: LHP Garrett Crochet (left shoulder inflammation) tossed a scoreless inning in a rehab appearance with Triple-A Charlotte on Wednesday night. Crochet, on the IL since June 17, was transferred from Double-A Birmingham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHICAGO \u2014 KFAN: Kyle Farmer hit a two-run homer to cap Minnesota\u2019s four-run seventh inning, Kenta Maeda threw seven strong innings and the Twins routed the Chicago White Sox 10-2 on Thursday night. Rookies Edouard Julien and Royce Lewis hit solo shots in the fourth to get the Twins rolling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":275699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=275698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275700,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275698\/revisions\/275700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/275699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=275698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}