Twins scrape past White Sox, 6-5, with two-run ninth inning

MINNEAPOLIS — Nothing wrong with the Twins that the last-place White Sox can't fix for them.

One night after earning their most lopsided win of the season so far against the White Sox, the Twins on Tuesday earned their most dramatic victory, too.

Trevor Larnach homered to pull the Twins within one run in the eighth, Byron Buxton homered to tie the game in the ninth and Alex Kirilloff lined a two-out single later in the inning to drive home Austin Martin and to allow the Twins to escape with a 6-5 win over Chicago at mostly empty Target Field.

The win gave the Twins a season-high two-game winning streak, with two more games remaining in the series against the 3-20 White Sox. The comeback also allowed the Twins to gloss over the 16 consecutive outs they made against White Sox starter Erick Fedde.

The Twins strung three hits together in the first inning to score an early run — then didn't manage another hit until the seventh inning, an interlude that Chicago used to put together a rare rally, consisting of an infield hit, a walk and Eloy Jiménez's 415-foot home run into the left-field seats.

It wasn't much, but for most of the night, it appeared enough to propel Chicago to its fourth win of the season.

That's because Fedde, the former Nationals right-hander who pitched last season in Korea, was almost spotless in his first career start against the Twins, at least once he got past the first inning. Larnach doubled into the right-field corner and Max Kepler singled him home, Kepler's fourth RBI in two games since returning from the injured list. But the Twins didn't score again against Fedde, who piled up a career-high 11 strikeouts in six innings.

The Twins closed within a run when Carlos Santana singled Buxton home against Jordan Leasure in the seventh inning, and Larnach contributed a two-out, two-run home run deep into the right-field seats, his second of the season, against Michael Kopech in the eighth.

The announced crowd of 11,223 finally made some noise in the ninth, when Buxton led off the inning with his first homer of the season, a fly ball off Steven Wilson that barely cleared the wall just inside the left-field foul pole.

It was just the beginning. With one out, Santana drew a walk, then reached third base when pinch-hitter Ryan Jeffers hit a popup into shallow left field that landed a couple of feet inside the foul line. Santana reached third, Jeffers had a 200-foot double, and after Christian Vázquez struck out, Kirilloff came to the plate, seeking to atone for a four-strikeout game.

He worked the count to 3-2, then stroked a low fastball into right field, scoring pinch-runner Martin with the walk-off run.

The Twins' running-on-fumes offense is frustrating, but their failure to support their All-Star starting pitcher is particularly worrisome. Pablo López opened the season with a dominant performance last month, but on Tuesday, he started his fourth consecutive Twins loss, putting more pressure on the pitchers behind him.

López allowed a pair of hits the first time through Chicago's lineup, successfully protecting the early 1-0 lead. But he had a nightmarish fourth inning, despite giving up only one hard-hit ball.

Danny Mendick led off with a grounder that got past third baseman Kyle Farmer for a hit. López then walked Gavin Sheets. And Jiménez then jumped on a low curveball, rocketing it high into the left-field seats, his second home run of the season.

López walked another batter but rebounded to strike out the last three hitters of the inning. But he needed 40 pitches to get through the inning, giving him 76 for the game, and manager Rocco Baldelli decided to turn to his bullpen the rest of the way.