MINNEAPOLIS _ The fifth inning Tuesday began with two routine groundouts. No one knew then that one of the wackier innings of the season was just getting started.
Before the inning ended, the Twins would be on the way to a 14-4 win over the White Sox. There also would be a two misplayed balls, the return of The Squirrel and Nelson Cruz making 39 look like 29. After taking control of the game in the middle innings, the Twins buried the White Sox with seven runs in the eighth inning as 12 men went to the plate.
The win, coupled with Cleveland's loss to the Mets, enabled the Twins to increase their lead in the American League Central division to three games.
Right-hander Michael Pineda put on a stunning strike-throwing display while pitching seven innings. The offense rewarded him by scoring seven unanswered runs against White Sox right-hander Reynaldo Lopez, who fired 99-mph fastballs at them.
Four of those runs were scored in the fifth, after Mitch Garver and Marwin Gonzalez grounded out with the score tied 3-3.
Jake Cave hit a line drive to left that should have been caught by Eloy Jimenez, but he froze as if he lost it in the lights, allowing it to fall in for a hit.
Max Kepler followed with a check-swing dribbler in front of the plate. Catcher Wellington Castillo picked the ball up and threw it to first, where Jose Abreu missed the catch for an error. Instead of the inning being over, the Twins had runners on first and third.
While Jorge Polanco batted, a squirrel appeared on the field for the second consecutive night. After going into the Twins dugout on Monday, this one ran in from right field and went through Kepler's legs as he took a lead off first. Then it headed for Chicago's dugout and the announced crowd of 26,798 howled and took pictures.
Play resumed as the squirrel left the dugout, briefly entered the stands, then ran along the outfield wall before escaping through a hole.
Polanco ended up getting hit by a Lopez pitch to load the bases for Cruz, who stepped to the plate batting 16 for 33 with eight home runs against the White Sox this season.
Cruz, who homered off of Lopez in the fourth, hit a 2-2 pitch to right for a two-run double and a 5-3 Twins lead. Eddie Rosario followed with a two-run single, and the Twins led 7-3.
Pineda gave up a home run to Tim Anderson in the sixth to make it 7-4, but his influence on the game can't be overlooked. Of the 88 pitches he threw on Tuesday, 70 were strikes. The strike percentage of 79.5 is the highest among any Twins starter this season.
Cruz finished 4 for 5 with three doubles, a home run and three RBIs. Two of the doubles came during the seven-run eighth inning, an inning in which the Twins hit five doubles and one homer.
The White Sox took a 3-0 lead in the third on a RBI double by Anderson and a two-run homer by Abreu. But Pineda held Chicago to one run over the next four innings while waiting for one of the best offenses in baseball to wake up.
The Twins bats got going in the bottom of the third, when Kepler launched a two-run home run to right to get the Twins within 3-2. Cruz went to the plate in the fourth and blasted a Lopez change-up into the seats in left to tie the game at 3.
Pineda went seven innings, giving up four runs on six hits with four strikeouts. He was the first Twins starter to pitch at least seven innings since July 31 in Miami.
