Field Level Media
Sep 28, 2018
Mitch Garver had four hits and drove in a career-high six runs, and Chase De Jong picked up his first major league win as the Minnesota Twins completed a doubleheader sweep of the Chicago White Sox with a 12-4 victory on Friday night at Target Field in Minneapolis.
Garver, usually a catcher but playing first base in his first start since suffering a concussion after taking a foul ball off his mask against the New York Yankees on Sept. 12, had a two-run double in the first and a RBI double in the second inning as the Twins jumped out to a 7-0 lead.
He added a two-run single in the third inning to make it 10-1 and an RBI single in the fifth inning that extended Minnesota's lead to 11-2.
Garver had a chance to tie the Minnesota single-game record for RBIs (eight) shared by Glenn Adams (1977) and Randy Bush (1989) in the seventh inning when he came up with runners at second and third and no outs, but he grounded to first.
Robbie Grossman went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs, and Joe Mauer went 2-for-4 with a walk and scored twice for Minnesota (76-84), which won its fourth straight game. Jake Cave also went 2-for-4 with a walk and scored three runs, and Jorge Polanco and Juan Graterol each scored twice.
De Jong (1-1), obtained July 30 from Seattle along with first baseman Ryan Costello for reliever Zach Duke, allowed four hits, including solo homers to Jose Rondon and Kevan Smith, over six innings in his eighth big league start, four of them with the Twins. He walked one and struck out four.
Lucas Giolito (10-13) took the loss, allowing seven runs on five hits and four walks in just 1 1/3 innings for Chicago (62-98), finishing the season with an MLB-worst 6.13 ERA.
The White Sox must win at least one of the two remaining games of the series to avoid losing 100 games in a season for the first time since 1970 (56-106).
With the sweep, Minnesota, which won the opener 2-1 earlier Friday, improved to 28-12 at Target Field since June 24 and 47-32 overall this season.
--Field Level Media