White Sox 9, Twins 4
MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota and Chicago battled back and forth on Wednesday with plenty of hits in the rubber game of their series at Target Field, but the White Sox were more efficient with their hits and beat the Twins 9-4.
The White Sox pounded out 14 hits (eight off Twins starter Mike Pelfrey), led by Alex Rios, who reached base four times with three hits and a walk, and Adam Dunn, who homered twice.
The Twins put 11 hits on the board and built an early 2-0 lead, but too often they couldn't find the clutch hit, stranding nine runners on the bases.
White Sox starter Dylan Axelrod gave up five early hits and two runs but settled in and spread his remaining four hits across three innings. He did get in trouble but pitched himself out of it, giving up nine hits in 5 1/3 innings with one walk and four strikeouts.
Down 5-2 in the sixth, the Twins clawed their way back into the game when Jamey Carroll, who had three hits, knocked in Pedro Florimon with a single to center. Joe Mauer followed with his 16th double of the season, moving Carroll to third. Carroll then scored on Josh Willingham's groundout to short.
The Sox came right back in the seventh when Jeff Keppinger hit a shot down the third-base line that eluded Eduardo Escobar, scoring Paul Konerko and Conor Gillaspie and extending the Chicago lead to 7-4.
The Sox blew the game open in the eighth with Dunn's second two-out, two-run homer.
The Twins had turned the tables on the White Sox, who scored first in the previous two games of the series, by jumping out to a first-inning lead on three straight hits.
Carroll greeted Axelrod with a double, followed by a Mauer single to right. Willingham knocked in Carroll with a single to left to make it 1-0.
Eduardo Escobar extended the lead in the second, hitting a 1-1 pitch into the right-field seats for his second home run of the season.
Dunn tied it in the third with one pitch, hitting his second home run in as many days -- a two-out blast to center that scored Alex Rios.
The Sox kept picking away at Pelfrey, and in the fourth Dayan Viciedo lifted his fourth homer of the season into the right-field seats.
Chicago added a run in the fifth with three straight hits, including an RBI double by Dunn that chased Pelfrey from the game. Viciedo then hit a sacrifice fly to score Rios and give the Sox a 5-2 lead.
NOTES: The Twins are 10-6 in day games this season, which is tied for second-most wins in baseball, trailing only Cincinnati (12). ... Thirty-one of Chicago's 37 games (83.8 percent) this season have been decided by three runs or fewer. The Sox are 15-16 in those games. ... Twins relievers have allowed just one run against the White Sox in 11 2/3 innings this season. They have walked just three and struck out 18. homer of the game, scoring Rios each time.
