MINNESOTA — The formula for beating a division-leading rival isn't overly complex. Get a strong outing from your starting pitcher, add in the catalyst of timely hits and receive just enough from your bullpen.
Such a mix hasn't come together consistently for the Minnesota Twins this season, but it was there most of the time Monday night at Target Field in the series opener against the first-place Chicago White Sox.
Rookie righthander Bailey Ober allowed two hits over five shutout innings for his first career victory, Max Kepler hit two home runs and drove in three runs, Nick Gordon delivered a two-run triple, and the bullpen buckled but didn't collapse. The result was an 8-5 victory in front of a season-high crowd of 20,321.
Taylor Rogers pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless, hitless, four-strikeout relief, and Hansel Robles escaped a tense ninth for the Twins, who led 6-1 after six innings.
Ober started the game in dominant fashion, getting Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada and Jose Abreu to strike out swinging in the first.
The Twins struck first when Alex Kirilloff led off the bottom of the second with a ground-rule double to center, and Kepler greeted Dylan Cease's 2-0 pitch with a line-drive rocket to right for a two-run homer that traveled 396 feet. The homer was Kepler's second in as many games.
The Twins stretched their lead to 3-0 in the third when Andrelton Simmons led off with a walk, Luis Arraez singled and Trevor Larnach drove home Simmons with a single past second. Cease avoided further damage by striking out Polanco, Kirilloff and Kepler to end the inning, stranding Arraez at third and Larnach at second.
Ober's first trip through the White Sox lineup went swimmingly, with five strikeouts, no walks and one hit on 41 pitches. Chicago made Ober work more in the fourth as he gave up two-out walks to Goodwin and Yasmani Grandal. After a mound visit from pitching coach Wes Johnson, Ober got Sheets to ground into a fielder's choice to end the frame, but he needed 30 pitches to get out of the inning.
Ober retired the first two batters in the sixth before walking No. 9 hitter Leury Garcia. Anderson followed with a single to right-center that sent Garcia to third. Moncada worked the count full and hammered a line drive to right, but Kepler was there to snare it and keep the White Sox scoreless.
Caleb Thielbar relieved Ober to start the sixth, and Abreu sent a 1-1 pitch 411 feet into the upper deck in left field for his 15th homer, trimming the Twins' lead to 3-1. Thielbar, though, struck out the next three batters.
The Twins created some separation in the sixth when Gordon hit his first career triple, driving home Kirilloff, who was hit by a pitch, and Kepler, who walked, for a 5-1 lead. That chased Cease from the game in favor of Jace Fry, who promptly threw a wild pitch on his first offering, enabling Gordon to score for a 6-1 lead.
Chicago, however, got to Thielbar in the seventh as Andrew Vaughn and Adam Eaton opened with doubles. Garcia followed with a single up the middle that drove both in and cut the lead to 6-3. Tyler Duffey replaced Thielbar but walked Anderson and gave up Moncada's two-run triple to right to make it 6-5. Abreu hit a sharp grounder to third, and Arraez threw home to erase Moncada. Rogers relieved Duffey and struck out pinch hitter Billy Hamilton and Zack Collins to end the inning.
Kepler led off the eighth with a homer to left, and Simmons drove in Sano, who had doubled, to make it 8-5.
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