Twins hit back-to-back homers twice to secure series sweep of White Sox

Edouard Julien homered twice in the victory.

Edouard Julien and Ryan Jeffers hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning to tie the game, then Julien hit another in the seventh to give the Twins some breathing room in a 6-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox Thursday afternoon at Target Field in Minneapolis. 

Carlos Santana and Jose Miranda would later go back to back in the eighth inning to ensure the Twins (11-13) would close the home series against the White Sox with a four-game sweep. They'll begin a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.

"It's going to be a good flight to L.A., just everybody's hit the ball pretty much this week. It's going to be good vibes on the flight and I think we need that for our mental," Julien said.

Good vibes were a theme after Thursday's win. They tend to be a theme after any series sweep. And it was an all-around effort from the Twins. Simeon Woods Richardson, called up by the Twins on Thursday to start the series finale against the White Sox, pitched an admirable game, even if it wasn't the cleanest outing and he didn't quite feel like he had his best stuff.

But Woods Richardson kept the Twins in the game, going five innings and allowing seven hits and two runs while fanning six. The times he did get in trouble, he got himself out with relatively little damage.

And this time, he won't be optioned right back to Triple-A as was the case with his last start.

"Long time coming. Long time coming," Woods Richardson said. "A lot of hard work, a lot of blood, sweat, tears over the years. It's actually a sense of humbleness, thankfulness, gratitude."

Cole Sands, Caleb Thielbar and Brock Stewart pitched shutout sixth, seventh and eighth innings, respectively, before Steven Okert ran into some trouble in the ninth. He gave up a leadoff single to Lee before Nicky Lopez grounded into a fielder's choice.

Okert then walked Mendick before hitting Gavin Sheets with a pitch. That's when the Twins turned to Griffin Jax, who struck out Jimenez before Grossman helped the White Sox score an unearned run when Santana couldn't handle a grounder up the first-base line and was hit with an error.

But Jax got Vaughn to ground out to second base to end the game and secure the sweep.

The White Sox (3-22) took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning after Woods Richardson sent them down in order in the first frame. Eloy Jimenez led off the second with a walk before Robbie Grossman and Andrew Vaughn hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. 

Kevin Pillar hit a sac fly to right field to score Jimenez, but Woods Richardson struck out Paul DeJong and Korey Lee after that to get out of the frame with minimal damage. 

Chicago then plated another run in the fifth inning. After Grossman flew out to left field, Andrew Vaughn hit a double. Woods Richardson then struck out Pillar, but DeJong hit a single to left that scored Vaughn that gave the White Sox a 2-0 lead. 

Lee and Nicky Lopez hit back-to-back singles to load the bases, but Woods Richardson again got out with minimal damage after getting Danny Mendick to ground out to the mound.

The Twins later tied the game in the sixth when Julien and Jeffers hit homers on back-to-back pitches from White Sox starter Michael Soroka. That ended Soroka’s day after five innings in which he allowed four hits and two runs while fanning one. 

Tanner Banks came on in relief and gave up a single to Trevor Larnach and a bunt to Max Kepler that put runners on first and second. Then Willi Castro hit a single to left field that scored Larnach and give the Twins a 3-2 lead, their first of the game, and Banks was pulled from the game.

The White Sox then turned to Jordan Leasure, who got Santana to ground into a 4-6-3 double play and then got Jose Miranda to ground out to first to get out of the inning. 

But the Twins weren’t done tacking on runs. Julien followed up with another solo homer in the seventh inning off John Brebbia that gave the Twins a 4-2 advantage. Santana would later hit another solo homer in the eighth inning off Steven Wilson that went 400 feet to right-center before Miranda followed up with another solo homer as the Twins went back to back for the second time of the day.

“The boys are electric. We’re winning. It’s a series sweep, it’s always nice. Everybody’s great vibes. It’s a great team win. It took both sides of the ball to get the win today, which is great," Woods Richardson said.