• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Sale Ks 12, White Sox shut out Twins

Jul 27, 2014 - 3:52 AM Minneapolis, MN (SportsNetwork.com) - Chris Sale tied a season-high with 12 strikeouts and pitched eight shutout innings to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 7-0 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.

Sale (10-1) remained unbeaten in his last seven starts after giving up just five singles and two walks. The All-Star lefty threw 79 of his 112 pitches for strikes and was still in the mid-90s with his fastball in his last inning of work.

"He was great. He had everything," said White Sox manager Robin Ventura. "He was just working fast. I think this is probably the fastest I've seen him work. ... Not a lot of shaking off (the catcher). He was just throwing it."

Alexei Ramirez belted a two-run homer and Conor Gillaspie had three hits and two runs scored for the White Sox, who have won the first three games of the four-game series.

Logan Darnell made his first career major-league start and pitched into the sixth inning for the Twins, who have lost seven of nine since hosting the All- Star Game. Darnell (0-1) was charged with seven runs on 11 hits and struck out seven.

Sale gave up two hits in an inning just once, in the eighth. Both hits were dribbled to the third-base side.

The first left Eduardo Escobar shaking off the effects of a 94 mph fastball that rode in on his hands. He was able to fight off Sale's 95th pitch just enough to roll it fair inside the line.

Trevor Plouffe got his second hit of the game off Sale with two outs in the eighth -- this one Sale fielded himself, but fired late to first base.

Sale then struck out Chris Colabello to end the inning and erase Minnesota's best chance to score since the second when Josh Willingham singled and Kurt Suzuki walked.

"He pitched really well. I think we all saw that," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. "He had all of his pitches. He didn't make it easy on us."

Daniel Webb worked around Oswaldo Arcia's double in the ninth to complete the shutout.

Earlier, Gillaspie hit a two-out double in the second inning and scored the first run on Tyler Flowers' single. The White Sox went up 2-0 in the third when Jose Abreu hit a sacrifice fly following consecutive singles by Adam Eaton and Ramirez.

Ramirez whacked a low off-speed pitch off the left-field pole for a two-run homer on the fifth inning, his 10th of the season, doubling Chicago's lead to 4-0.

Darnell came out after giving up hits to the first four batters in the sixth inning, including an RBI double to Flowers and an RBI single to Alejandro De Aza. Gordon Beckham added a sac fly off Ryan Pressly to make it 7-0.

Game Notes

Sale improved to 5-0 over his last seven starts with 54 strikeouts in 50 2/3 innings. The White Sox lost the other two games ... Sale lowered his ERA from 2.03 to 1.88 for the season ... Chicago also upped its record to 6-3 since the All-Star break ... Darnell was recalled from Triple-A Rochester. He pitched three perfect innings against Cleveland on May 6 in his MLB debut ... The Twins swept a four-game series at home against the White Sox from June 19-22.