Willi Castro's three-run homer powers Twins to 6-3 win over White Sox

Castro hit the homer and a double on his birthday.

Willi Castro said it was the best birthday he's ever had.

On his 27th birthday Wednesday night, Castro hit a three-run homer in the second inning that helped power the Twins to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Target Field in Minneapolis. It's their third win in as many nights over the White Sox, and this one secured the series sweep.

While Castro said after the game he hadn't yet opened any presents, his wife did make him a Tres Leches birthday cake in the morning, and he got the gift of a water bath from his teammates after the game for his efforts in another Twins victory in which the team's bats continued to come alive.

"That was horrible," Castro said of the bath. "I was freezing during the game, but I was even more freezing when they poured that water."

Castro went 2 for 4 overall, also hitting a fourth-inning double.

The hits started coming right away for the Twins (10-13) in the second inning. Carlos Santana drew a leadoff walk before Austin Martin followed up with a double off White Sox starter Garrett Crochet. Christian Vazquez then singled to right field to score Santana, and after Kyle Farmer struck out, Castro hit the three-run shot 422 feet into the left-center field bleachers for a 4-0 Twins lead.

The White Sox (3-21) got a pair of solo homers off Twins starter Joe Ryan during the third inning, with both Kevin Pillar and Korey Lee going deep to cut the Twins' lead in half and make it a 4-2 game.

"I think just for flow of game I'm trying to — that's the inning where I don't want to give up those runs, so that was pretty frustrating," Ryan said. "But I think just to have the offense come back and tack on a couple more was awesome to see. I think that's just a good sign in where the headspace is at."

The Twins tacked on those additional runs in the bottom of the fifth inning after the White Sox had made it a one-run game. Braden Shewmake stole third base and then stole home as Vazquez attempted to throw out Lee at second base. But Lee slid in safely to second base, and Shewmake slid into home to cut the White Sox deficit to 4-3.

"That comes from me and (first base and catching coach) Hank (Conger), so ultimately, I’ll tell Hank what we’re going to do, and we’re throwing through right there," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "At that point in the game, the situation that was at hand we’re gonna throw through with the score being what it was. (Vazquez) is going to do what we ask him to do. He’s just following our orders. That’s not on him, that’s on me, and they decided to play good, aggressive baseball.

"We can eat it and just give them second base in order to stop them from being aggressive, but you’re not going to see that too often and when it plays out like that it doesn’t feel good, when a team double steals on you and takes a run, that doesn’t feel good. But ultimately at that point in the game I feel like that’s what we’re going to do. More times than not we are throwing through first and third as is every other team. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, and it didn’t work out in that instance.”

But then came the additional Twins runs. Max Kepler hit an infield single that scored Manny Margot, who doubled to lead off the fifth inning. After Vazquez singled to advance Kepler to third, Kepler was able to score after a wild pitch from White Sox reliever Deivi Garcia got past Lee.

The Twins lineup was strong from top to bottom Wednesday night. Leadoff man Ryan Jeffers went 2 for 4 with a pair of singles. Margot went 2 for 5 with the double, a single and the run scored. Kepler was 2 for 2 pinch hitting for Martin, who was 1 for 2 with the double. Vazquez went 3 for 4.

And of course there was Castro.

"We had a lot of guys come through today," Baldelli said. "The lineup was very deep for us today."

And Ryan made sure the runs didn't go to waste, posting another strong outing in which he went six innings while allowing just four hits and the three runs while fanning eight. He outdueled Crochet, whose stuff both Baldelli and Ryan complemented after the game. But Crochet lasted just four innings after allowing seven hits and five runs, although he did record six strikeouts.

"He did a really good job," Baldelli said of Ryan. "He gave up a couple homers, but we can live with a couple solo home runs. And he moved past that, he did a good job with that. ... He stayed within himself, he kept his head cool enough to just keep pumping strikes, and he did well."

Matt Bowman pitched a shutout seventh inning, Brock Stewart tossed a 1-2-3 eighth inning with a strikeout and Griffin Jax followed up with a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout to preserve the Twins' lead.