MINNEAPOLIS _ The Twins' home-run prowess is reaching levels rarely seen in Minnesota. Their pitching can just be hard to watch.
Sometimes that combination produces dramatic baseball. On Sunday, both the Twins' and White Sox's starting pitchers were battered, both teams blew four-run leads, both closers fizzled in the ninth, and six home run balls landed in the seats, plus another couple baseballs that fell inches short. The result was a 24-run, 34-hit bender of offensive intoxication, ultimately won 13-11 by Chicago on Tim Anderson's two-run double in the 12th inning.
Chicago's rookie shortstop lined a one-out slider into the corner off Twins left-hander Pat Dean, 1-6, driving home Omar Narvaez and Adam Eaton and preventing the Twins from winning a series in Target Field for the first time since July.
Minnesota smacked four home runs for the second straight day, a back-to-back display of slugging they've managed only twice in the past 52 seasons. But all that offense almost wasn't enough, not with Jose Abreu and his White Sox teammates using Target Field for batting practice. Abreu drove in seven runs and the White Sox rallied with two off Twins closer Brandon Kintzler in the ninth to take a brief lead.
The Twins struck right back against Chicago closer David Robertson, with Kurt Suzuki driving a game-tying double to the center field wall, sending the Sunday matinee into extra innings.
Kintzler, 13-for-14 in save situations before Sunday, loaded the bases with two walks and a single in the ninth inning, then served up a 95-mph sinker that Avisail Garcia smacked up the middle, driving in the final two runs of the Twins' 10th eight-or-more-runs meltdown in their last 17 games.
Abreu did most of the damage, smashing a pair of three-run homers and singling in a run. Chicago piled up five runs against starter Andrew Albers, and six more against the Twins' bullpen, culminating in Kintzler's second loss in a week.
All that Chicago offense ruined a memorable moment for Twins rookie Byron Buxton, who in the space of four days has gone from taking third strikes to taking curtain calls.
The Twins' rookie, his previous stints in the majors a jumble of strikeouts and injuries, was summoned out of the dugout by an appreciative Target Field crowd in the second inning after blasting a bases-loaded fastball from Anthony Ranaudo more than 400 feet to straightaway center field. His first career grand slam, and the Twins' third in a row to be hit by a rookie, closed the Twins' early 4-0 gap.
Buxton's home run was his fourth of the season, three of them coming in the four days since being recalled from Class AAA Rochester on Thursday.
"It's been a nice start to this particular go-around," Twins manager Paul Molitor understated.
He's not the only one getting hot lately. Brian Dozier continued his romp into the record books, crushing a Ranaudo fastball into the seats in the fourth inning, giving him 35 homers on the season, fifth-most in the American League. Only Harmon Killebrew (eight times), Bob Allison (1963) and Josh Willingham (2012) had hit that many in Minnesota history.
John Ryan Murphy, whose three hits in four at-bats Sunday equaled the three hits he managed in 40 April at-bats, also homered, his first long ball as a Twin slipping just inside the foul pole in left field. And Miguel Sano drove a pitch into the bullpen in the seventh inning, like Buxton and Dozier homering for the second straight day.
All the home runs helped the Twins drown out the seven runs driven in by Chicago slugger Jose Abreu, who smacked a pair of three-run homers and also singled in a run. Chicago piled up five runs against starter Andrew Albers, and four more against the Twins' bullpen, before closer Brandon Kintzler was summoned in the eighth inning to record the White Sox's final four outs.
Albers was one out away from qualifying for his first victory since Aug. 12, 2013 when the White Sox strung together three straight hits, including Abreu's RBI single, to knock him out of the game with the Twins leading 6-5. He allowed Abreu's first three-run homer, but didn't get much help from his defense; due to a pair of infield errors on Miguel Sano and Jorge Polanco, two of Albers' runs were unearned.
The Twins nearly pulled off one final comeback in the 12th inning, drawing three walks to load the bases. Max Kepler made a little history during the rally, striking out for the fifth time on the day, the fifth Twin ever and first since Roy Smalley in 1976 to whiff five times. But Eddie Rosario lined a ball off pitcher Tommy Kahnle's leg, and it ricocheted to Todd Frazier, who threw Rosario out to end the game.
