CHICAGO _ Some big swings early gave the Twins a false sense of security.
They grabbed a big lead Thursday night, only to see the White Sox chip away at it against starter Phil Hughes until he was knocked out of the game before the end of the fifth inning. Matt Davidson homered off Tyler Duffey in the sixth inning, and the Twins were out of cushion.
Chicago's talented bullpen shut the Twins offense down. White Sox relievers entered the game second in baseball in ERA, at 2.39. The Twins were 26th, at 5.05. The power show put on by the Twins early should not have come to this, but they hung on for a 7-6 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Three Twins swatted with style, each bashing a home run during the first two innings off White Sox left-hander Derek Holland.
Robbie Grossman and Miguel Sano each walked with one out in the first inning. Jorge Polanco hit a sure double-play ball, but first baseman Jose Abreu dropped the throw from second, putting runners on first and third.
Joe Mauer singled to center to drive in Grossman with the first run of the game. Eduardo Escobar clicked on a sinker up in the zone, and hit it an estimated 425 feet to left for a three-run home run and 4-0 Twins lead.
Brian Dozier got a fastball above the belt with one out in the second and crushed it to left to put the Twins ahead 5-0. Two batters later, Sano hit an impressive opposite-field home run on a breaking ball to give the Twins a 6-0 lead as Chicago fans groaned. The long balls were coming off Holland, who entered the game with a 2.02 ERA.
But the Twins are hitting home runs off everybody these days. Thursday marked their 12th game in a row with a home run. And they have hit 17 homers in eight games this month.
Chicago scored twice in the fourth to get within 6-2, one run scoring when Byron Buxton dropped a routine fly ball. It looked as if he was trying to get into position to get off a quick throw and missed the catch.
Eduardo Escobar's RBI double made it 7-2 in the fifth. Hughes had a nice cushion at his disposal and was throwing plenty of strikes. But he started losing command in the fourth inning, needing 27 pitches to get through it.
And that fed into the fifth, when he gave up a leadoff double to Omar Narvaez, a bloop single to Luery Garcia and a three-run home run to Melky Cabrera on his normally trusty knuckle curve, cutting the lead to 7-5.
Also coming into play were some questionable calls made by plate umpire Marvin Hudson as the game went along. Hughes did not look pleased as he was removed from the game for Duffey. After Duffey gave up the home run to Davidson, he fell behind 2-0 to Tim Anderson when both pitches appeared to be in the strike zone.
The Twins were trying to win both games that were played in the series, with Wednesday's game having been rained out. The Twins didn't mind the postponement, and not because that allowed them to dine at some of the Windy City's finest restaurants.
Dozier was not in Wednesday's lineup because he needed one more day to recover from a left ankle sprain suffered on Friday. Sano had missed Tuesday's game while serving a suspension. So they both returned to the lineup Thursday and ripped into the White Sox.
