Luis Robert smacked a two-run home run and Erick Fedde pitched five shutout innings to lift the Chicago White Sox to a 3-1 win against the visiting Minnesota Twins on Wednesday in the opener of a doubleheader.
Chicago made the most of four hits to stop a three-game losing streak and defeat Minnesota for the first time in nine tries this season.
A two-out rally in the sixth proved the difference for the White Sox. With Andrew Vaughn aboard with a ground-rule double, Robert sent a two-run blast to center field that gave Chicago a 3-0 lead.
Reliever Jordan Leasure surrendered a solo shot to Minnesota’s Matt Wallner on the first pitch of the seventh inning before retiring the next three Twins. Five Chicago pitchers combined on a six-hitter.
Michael Kopech struck out the side on nine pitches in the ninth for his ninth save.
Carlos Correa singled three times for the Twins. Wallner had two hits. Jose Miranda stretched his hitting streak to 13 games with an infield single in the eighth.
Fedde (7-3) pitched effectively although his run of five straight starts of at least six innings came to an end.
He scattered four hits, two walks and five strikeouts while throwing 58 of his 90 pitches for strikes. Fedde recovered and emerged unscathed after loading the bases on two walks and a single to start the game.
It took 35 pitches to escape the first inning, but Fedde faced no more than four batters in any inning after that.
Twins starter Bailey Ober fell to 8-5 after spacing three runs and four hits in six innings with one walk and six strikeouts.
After walking Tommy Pham to lead off the game, he induced a double-play grounder and set down the next 10 batters after that. Ober limited the White Sox to Paul DeJong’s run-scoring sacrifice fly in the fifth until he encountered trouble with two out in the sixth.
Cole Sands followed Ober with two perfect innings of relief with three strikeouts.
–Field Level Media
