Twins 3 - 2 White Sox
Final
  for this game

Twins hold on to edge White Sox

May 5, 2011 - 1:04 AM

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Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Nick Blackburn went 6 2/3 strong innings and Jason Kubel notched two RBI as the Minnesota Twins completed a brief two-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox with a 3-2 victory at U.S. Cellular Field.

In breaking a career-high four-game losing streak, Blackburn (2-4) allowed just four hits and one run.

Chicago, which has lost seven of its last eight, threatened in the home half of the ninth, placing runners on first and second with one out before Omar Vizquel and Juan Pierre each popped out to right.

John Danks (0-5) allowed three runs over eight innings to suffer the loss.

"We are wasting good pitching," said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. "It's kind of like you look around, look around and see if you can grab something and take it from there, but there is nothing to grab there right now."

Just several hours removed from Francisco Liriano's seventh no-hitter in franchise history, Minnesota continued the momentum, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first behind Kubel's RBI single to left.

Alex Rios' third home run of the season, a fly to deep left, evened the game at 1-1 in the third. Rios, who is batting just .184 on the year, went 3-for-4.

The Twins tacked on the eventual winning runs in the sixth, as Denard Span began the frame with a single to center, eventually scoring on a Kubel sac fly. Rene Tosoni drove in the Twins' third run with a grounder up the middle, which scored Matt Tolbert.

Chicago threatened in the seventh, placing runners on first and second with two outs, before Vizquel popped out to short to end the threat. As a team, the White Sox were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

"We continue to struggle with men in scoring position," said Guillen. "Every time we got a man in scoring position we had a tough time to bring him in...We swing the bat good today, we just can't catch a break."

A Paul Konerko sacrifice fly in the eighth pulled Chicago to within one.

Rios reached with a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth. Pinch-hitter Brent Lillibridge was then hit by a pitch, but Matt Capps was able to retire Vizquel and Pierre in succession to pick up his fifth save of the season.

"It was a nice win today, a battle," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.

Game Notes

Kubel has hit safely in 25 of 29 games this season...Entering Wednesday's contest, four of the last six teams that were no-hit during the regular season won the following game...Chicago has scored four runs or less in 19 of its last 21 games.






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