Luis Arraez walked twice and doubled in his final at-bat while wrapping up his first American League batting title as the visiting Minnesota Twins cruised to a 10-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday on the final day of MLB’s regular season.
Arraez finished with a .316 batting average to become the fifth Twins player to win a batting crown — joining Hall of Famers Rod Carew, Tony Oliva and Kirby Puckett, along with the most recent to do it, Joe Mauer. The group shares 15 total batting titles between them, with Carew winning seven in a Twins uniform.
Gary Sanchez hit a three-run home run for Minnesota and Jermaine Palacios added a two-run shot to highlight a six-run first inning.
Sanchez finished with two hits and four RBIs, Gio Urshela had two hits and a run scored, and Gilberto Celestino and Palacios each had two RBIs for Minnesota (78-84).
Louie Varland (1-2) picked up his first major league win, allowing four hits over five scoreless innings. He struck out five and didn’t walk a batter. Cole Sands gave up an unearned run and four hits over the final four innings to pick up his first career save.
Carlos Perez had two doubles and an RBI for Chicago (81-81) which finished in second place in the AL Central. White Sox starter Davis Martin (3-6) allowed nine runs on seven hits and two walks over 1 2/3 innings before leaving with right bicep tightness.
Arraez led off the game with a walk and went to second on a single by Urshela. One out later, Sanchez hit his 16th homer of the season to left field making it 3-0. Jake Cave followed with a double and scored on a single by Matt Wallner. Palacios then hit his second home run in two games to increase the lead to 6-0.
The Twins made it 9-0 in the second on an RBI double by Sanchez and a two-run single by Celestino.
Arraez, playing with left hamstring tightness, exited the game for a pinch-runner after hitting a double that one-hopped the fence in right-center in the third. The hit extended his hitting streak to nine games. Nick Gordon’s sacrifice fly to the wall in right made it 10-0.
The White Sox broke up the shutout with one out in the bottom of the ninth on a ground-rule double by Perez to left-center, driving in Romy Gonzalez who had reached base on a throwing error by Urshela.
–Field Level Media
