MINNEAPOLIS _ Jose Berrios entered an All-Star season last April with a three-hit shutout of the Orioles. Six months later, he finished it by giving up another three hits.
And in between, the right-hander put himself in a class with some of the greatest strikeout artists in Twins history.
Berrios whiffed nine White Sox hitters over seven innings on Friday, and was a dropped scoop away from keeping Chicago off the scoreboard, too, as the Twins made up an April snow-out with a 2-1 victory over the White Sox.
Berrios looped a bat-freezing curveball over the outside corner against Daniel Palka in the sixth inning, marking the 200th strikeout of the season for the Puerto Rican right-hander. He became the eighth Twins pitcher ever to reach that milestone, and the first right-hander since Bert Blyleven in 1986. Only Francisco Liriano (2010) and Johan Santana (2004-06) had achieved the feat in the intervening years.
Chicago managed only three hits against Berrios, all of them in the third inning. Leury Garcia's two-out grounder to second base would have ended the inning, but Gregorio Petit's throw to Tyler Austin was in the dirt, and Tim Anderson scored the White Sox's only run on the infield hit.
Taylor Rogers and Trevor May shut out Chicago over the final two innings to preserve Berrios' 12th victory and snap his eight-game winless streak. Berrios finishes 2018 with a 12-11 record, 202 strikeouts, a 3.84 ERA and a mid-July All-Star appearance.
The Twins didn't generate much more offense against Reynaldo Lopez, but took advantage of his own wildness to hand him his 10th loss of the season. Joe Mauer led off the game with an infield single, and scored on Austin's ground out. And in the sixth inning, after Lopez walked the bases loaded, Willians Astudillo hit a fly ball to center field that scored Jake Cave from third base.
