Twins get in the win column with five-run sixth inning

CHICAGO — Byron Buxton looked at four pitches from rookie Shane Smith and then took his base. Trevor Larnach watched five more go by, four of them balls, before taking his base, as well. Those two walks spelled the end of Smith’s night and set the stage for the Minnesota Twins to finally break out.

With two outs in the sixth inning, facing reliever Penn Murfee, the Twins’ offense came to life, erupting for five runs — all with two outs — to lift them to their first victory of the season, an 8-3 win over the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field. ADVERTISEMENT “We needed that,” first baseman Ty France said. “We needed that bad.



We’ve put together a lot of good at-bats the last four games. It was nice to finally be rewarded.” The Twins (1-4), prior to that point, had managed just two hits off of Smith, a Rule 5 draft pick making his major league debut on Tuesday night.

But after his departure, the Twins’ offense got to Murfee. After days of good contact, the Twins finally saw some balls — and not-particularly hard hit balls, at that — find some grass. “It’s not that we were striking out all the time.

We were putting together good at-bats,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “We were hitting the ball hard and you know it’s going to come around when you’re doing that. I think we stayed with it.

” Jeffers drove in the Twins’ first run since the fourth inning on Sunday to get the scoring going. France followed, sending an RBI single into center. After Willi Castro was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Edouard Julien, making his first start of the season, took advantage of his opportunity, singling to left to tie up the game.

Jose Miranda then dropped a softly-hit ball — it was struck at 65.1 miles per hour off the bat — in between White Sox (2-3) first baseman Andrew Vaughn and right fielder Austin Slater, giving the Twins a two-run lead. “Three, four, five games never defines your season.

There’s way too much baseball for that,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But we were waiting for a nice five-run inning.” ADVERTISEMENT The Twins padded that lead in the ninth when Harrison Bader crushed a breaking ball left over the heart of the plate, sending it out of the park for more runs.

The eight-run output more than doubled the Twins’ offensive production to date after a slow collective start at the plate. It came in support of Simeon Woods Richardson who, in his first start of the season, went four innings and allowed a pair of runs. One scored in the second on a Brooks Baldwin RBI single and the other in the fourth on a Baldwin sacrifice fly.

Woods Richardson made way for Louie Varland, who gave up a solo home run to designated hitter Nick Maton. But after that, a quartet of Twins relievers — Cole Sands, Jorge Alcala, Griffin Jax and Danny Coulombe — each turned in a scoreless inning to secure the Twins’ first win of the season. “It was a great team win today,” Woods Richardson said.

“It took everybody to get that win and sometimes, you’re going to need that.” ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers.

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