Twins rally, sweep White Sox with five home runs, including two by Edouard Julien

MINNEAPOLIS — It was a sleepy afternoon game against a historically bad opponent, a home-run-derby-style finale to a four-game sweep that was only briefly in doubt.

But if you're Simeon Woods Richardson, Thursday's 6-3 Twins victory over Chicago at Target Field was something much more memorable: A gateway, finally, to the major leagues.

Edouard Julien homered twice, Ryan Jeffers, Carlos Santana and Jose Miranda once apiece, and the Twins moved within two games of .500 by handing the White Sox their 22nd loss, second-most in major league history, in their first 25 games. Only the 1-24 Orioles of 1988 were worse, and only the 3-22 2003 Tigers and 2022 Reds could fathom such a terrible start.

Woods Richardson was the beneficiary of the Sox's lucklessness, giving up seven hits over five innings, but only two runs. He struck out six, walked only one, and retired the final four hitters he faced.

Then he did something even more momentous, from a career standpoint: He boarded a flight with the Twins to Anaheim, where a six-day road trip begins on Friday. Three times since he was acquired in the Jose Berrios trade with Toronto in 2021, Woods Richardson has started a game for the Twins, and three times he was immediately sent back to the minors.

This time, however, he is almost certainly a full-fledged Twin and a member of the starting rotation, at least for as long as his pitching warrants it.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has a favor to ask, though: Please don't mention that fact to Woods Richardson.

"All he needs to worry about is just pitching good today. I don't want him thinking that this start means more than any other outing he's had," said Baldelli, who bestowed this opportunity on the rookie right-hander by dispatching Louie Varland and his 9.18 ERA to Class AAA St. Paul earlier in the week. "You're only as good as your last outing in this game, [so] this is all he has to have on his mind right now. But I'm planning on him pitching good and keeping that spot in the rotation."

It was bumpy a couple times, with the White Sox loading the bases in both the second and fourth innings. But each time, Woods Richardson worked out of trouble, recording back-to-back strikeouts to end the second inning, and a fielding a weak comebacker to end the fourth.

His teammates, meanwhile put up only two singles over five innings against Chicago right-hander Michael Soroka. But Julien and Jeffers bashed back-to-back pitches from Soroka into the seats to open the sixth inning, tying the game and chasing the starter.

Chicago's bullpen, which had already allowed seven runs in 11 innings during the series, then allowed the Twins to score in three straight innings. Tanner Banks gave up three straight singles, with Willi Castro's liner to left driving in Trevor Larnach with the go-ahead run. Julien homered again in the eighth, this time to the opposite field, off Jordan Leasure in the seventh. Santana hit his first homer of the season off John Brebbia in the eighth, and Miranda followed two pitches later with his second.

The White Sox loaded the bases in the ninth and scored on a single that rolled into right field before Griffin Jax closed out the game.

Now the Twins spend the weekend in California, while Woods Richardson prepares for the first back-to-back start of his major league career: A rematch with the White Sox on Tuesday in Chicago.