Yasmani Grandal belted two homers and drove in five runs as the host Chicago White Sox slugged their way to a 13-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.
Chicago clubbed six home runs, including Gavin Sheets’ first career blast. Brian Goodwin and Jose Abreu each belted solo homers, and Andrew Vaughn added a two-run shot.
Dylan Cease (7-3) helped the White Sox record their third straight win, limiting the Twins to two runs on three hits with seven strikeouts in seven innings.
Nelson Cruz, Josh Donaldson and Gilberto Celestino each homered for Minnesota, which has lost four of its last six games. Starting pitcher Bailey Ober (0-1) allowed five runs on four hits over 3 1/3 innings.
Donaldson homered in the first inning for the second straight game, a solo shot to left field.
Chicago responded with three runs in the third inning. Goodwin hit his second homer of the season before Vaughn delivered a two-run shot over the center field wall.
Abreu added a solo homer in the third and Chicago extended its lead to 5-1 in the fourth when Goodwin scored on a sacrifice fly by Vaughn.
The White Sox, who entered the game last in the American League in home runs, pulled away in the fifth when they went deep twice and scored six runs while sending 11 batters to the plate.
Grandal sparked the outburst with a three-run blast off Matt Shoemaker, who gave up eight runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings.
Sheets, who had two hits and two RBIs in his major league debut on Tuesday, added a two-run homer with two outs in the inning.
Tim Anderson capped the big inning with a run-scoring single for the White Sox, who have won seven of their first eight meetings against the Twins this season.
Cruz blasted a 453-foot homer in the top of the sixth off Cease, who improved to 4-0 with a 1.81 ERA over eight home starts this season.
Grandal hit a two-run shot in the bottom half, giving him eight home runs and 18 RBIs in his last 23 games, all in June.
–Field Level Media