Magic number<\/strong>: 6 (for AL Central)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt was a good way to finish the series,\u201d said bench coach Jayce Tingler, who began filling in for manager Rocco Baldelli on Sunday after Baldelli returned to Minnesota to be with his wife, who is expecting twins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think Sonny kind of came out from the get-go and set the tone and just really threw the ball well. [We] got the two big hits, really from Julien and the [insurance run] from [Jorge] Polanco. We played pretty good defense behind him and a nice way to finish up the [series].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gray was exceptional on the mound in his 30th start of the season, allowing just five hits with six strikeouts. The right-hander didn\u2019t face too much trouble. But when he did, he escaped it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He allowed leadoff doubles in the fourth and sixth innings. However, Gray put up zeros in both frames by stranding both runners at third base. Andrew Stevenson, who made a spectacular grab in center field in the sixth, helped him limit any damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“[Gray’s] obviously got really good stuff,\u201d White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. \u201cHe’s putting together a really good season. The key to what he does is he bears down with runners in scoring position. You saw that all day.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Added Tingler: \u201cHe finds a way to just slow it down, make pitches and navigate his way through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The veteran lowered his ERA to 2.84, second-lowest in the American League and fourth-lowest in the Majors. Minnesota\u2019s one-two punch of Gray and Pablo L\u00f3pez — who has a 3.58 ERA and 221 strikeouts — has done wonders for them this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both will likely be called upon in the first two games of the Wild Card round, and the Twins like their chances with them on the mound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel like Sonny has been doing it really all year,\u201d Tingler said. \u201c[He] and Pablo have been going back and forth. I think both guys are certainly worthy of Cy Young talk, and they’ve just been outstanding, Sonny continued it again today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The homer off Cease continues to show the talent of Julien at the plate. His three-run shot was his 14th homer of the season, and he is now hitting .268 with a .843 OPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team has plenty of trust in the rookie at the top of the lineup, and he’s been coming through in a big way all year. Julien has reached base in 10 straight games and in 17 of the past 19 contests. He also started at first base for just the second time this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen more different plays there, different types of catches and throws,\u201d Julien said. \u201cIt\u2019s different, but I\u2019m feeling more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the Twins’ magic number reaching six, they could clinch the division as soon as Wednesday in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re closer to our goal to make the playoffs now,\u201d Julien said. \u201cEvery win that we get, it makes us even closer. We go to Cincinnati against a team that\u2019s battling for the playoffs, and it\u2019ll be a good test for us and hopefully we come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHICAGO -Twins- If the Twins want to make some noise in the postseason, they\u2019ll need contributions from both veterans and rookies. In the Twins\u2019 4-0 win over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on Sunday afternoon, both groups showed up in a big way. Sonny Gray tossed seven scoreless innings and Edouard Julien crushed a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":275699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275725","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=275725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275733,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275725\/revisions\/275733"}],"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=275725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}