Field Level Media
Jun 5, 2018
Eduardo Escobar's three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday capped a four-run rally with two outs that lifted the Minnesota Twins to a 4-2 win over the Chicago White Sox in the opener of a doubleheader at Target Field in Minneapolis.
The 413-foot shot to center field scored Eddie Rosario and Gregorio Petit, making a winner of reliever Tyler Duffey (1-1), who worked two scoreless innings. Fernando Rodney pitched the ninth to garner his 13th save.
Shut down for seven innings by starter Reynaldo Lopez, who ceded only one hit and walked four while fanning four, Minnesota got its offense going after reliever Nate Jones (2-2) got the first two hitters out in the eighth.
Brian Dozier reached on an infield single, and Rosario drew a walk. Miguel Sano lined a single to left that scored Dozier and sent Rosario to third.
After Petit ran for Sano, Escobar jumped on a 1-2 fastball that was right down the middle and cracked his 11th homer, earning a curtain call.
Prior to that point, Lopez and Yoan Moncada played the starring roles in a makeup game from an April snowstorm that wiped out three straight dates in Minnesota.
Moncada led off the game against Fernando Romero by launching a 430-foot homer over the center field wall, his eighth of the year.
In the fifth, Moncada singled with one out and swiped his seventh base as Yolmer Sanchez fanned. Given an open base with Jose Abreu at the plate, the Twins disdained an intentional walk. Abreu answered with his MLB-high 22nd double, a liner to left-center that easily scored Moncada for a 2-0 lead.
With Lopez dealing, it seemed like two runs would be enough. Escobar's two-out ground-rule double to left-center in the fourth was the only Minnesota hit off the young right-hander. But a pitch count of 106 forced him out.
Romero scattered seven hits over six innings, yielding two runs and walking none. He fanned four.
--Field Level Media