(Sports Network) – The Chicago White Sox take aim at their second four-game
sweep of the Minnesota Twins in just over three years as the two clubs
conclude their series this evening.

Pitching has helped the White Sox dominate this set so far after they came in
riding a four-game slide. They won the first portion of a doubleheader on
Monday by a 2-1 margin, then saw Zach Stewart threw a near-perfect game to win
the nightcap.

Last night was Jake Peavy’s turn in Chicago’s second straight shutout as he
battled flu-like symptoms to pitch into the seventh inning of a 3-0 win. He
escaped trouble in each of the first four innings, but ended up allowing only
four hits while striking out nine and winning for the third time in 11 starts
since the beginning of July.

“I’ve been battling a head cold, congestion,” said Peavy. “I was a little more
aggressive. We didn’t have a whole lot of 1-2-3 innings, but I had a good game
plan. I stretched out enough to get a win.”

Alex Rios had a solo homer and Alejandro De Aza had two hits, including an RBI
single for Chicago, which still trails first-place Detroit by eight games in
the American League Central.

Facing three games in two days, the struggling Twins made a rare move as they
became the first time in 25 years to start three players making their major
league debuts in the same game.

Australian-born righty Liam Hendriks (0-1) pitched admirably in his debut, but
was saddled with the loss after giving up three runs on four hits in seven
innings.

“I went out there and attacked my pitch plan,” Hendriks said. “It worked
pretty good. I walked a couple of guys, which is kind of irritating for me. I
hate walking people, but I got out of it and got through it pretty well.”

First baseman Chris Parmelee and center fielder Joe Benson were also called up
from the minor leagues to make their MLB debuts, but arrived to see the Twins
lose their fifth straight game.

Parmelee was 2-for-4 with leadoff singles in the second and fourth innings,
but was stranded at third base both times. Benson batted first in the order
and went 0-for-3 with a walk.

Overall, Minnesota is 3-14 in its past 17 games and has lost eight of its last
nine versus Chicago.

John Danks will try to rebound for the White Sox tonight following his first
loss in five starts last time out.

The left-hander fired a three-hit shutout at Seattle on Aug. 27 before getting
lit up for eight runs over 4 2/3 innings of a loss to the Tigers on Friday.
Danks had been 2-0 in his previous four appearances, but dipped to 6-10 with a
4.01 earned run average on the season.

Danks has faced the Twins just once this season and got a loss back on May 3
despite a quality start. The 26-year-old yielded three runs in eight innings,
but is 6-8 with a 4.95 ERA versus Minnesota lifetime regardless.

Carl Pavano aims to build off his first win since the All-Star break with
tonight’s start versus the White Sox.

The 35-year-old was 0-5 over his previous nine games before recording a win at
the Angels on Friday. He allowed four runs — three earned — on seven hits
over 6 2/3 innings, but did not allow a homer after yielding five in his
previous three outings.

“The guys put together some great at-bats,” said Pavano, who won for the first
time since July 7 at the White Sox. “The Angels are aggressive, but I was able
to keep the ball down in the zone and keep them off-balance.”

The right-hander is 7-11 with a 4.60 ERA and lost to Chicago on Aug. 6 despite
yielding only one earned run in eight innings of work. Pavano is 8-4 with a
3.26 ERA versus the White Sox lifetime.

The Sports Network

MINNEAPOLIS – Jake Peavy struck out a season-high nine and Alex Rios homered to help the Chicago White Sox to a 3-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.

Peavy (7-7) gave up four hits and walked two in 6 1/3 innings against a Twins team that had three players who were called up from Double-A in the last two days.

Alejandro De Aza had two hits, including a triple, and an RBI, and Sergio Santos picked up his 29th save for the White Sox, who have won three in a row and eight of 12.

Liam Hendriks (0-1) allowed three runs and four hits over seven innings in his major league debut. Chris Parmelee had two hits in his first game as a pro, but the Twins lost for the 14th time in 17 games.

Paul Konerko, who hasn’t hit a homer in his last 60 at-bats, got a much-needed day off, but the White Sox still managed to scratch together enough offense for Peavy. Brent Morel added an RBI single as the Sox beat the Twins for the eighth time in the last nine games in the series.

The White Sox are in the middle of a stretch of 28 straight games against the AL Central, but they have only three games left against division-leading Detroit. The Tigers beat the Indians 10-1 on Tuesday night, keeping the White Sox eight games back.

“We’re still in the pennant race,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “I know it’s going to be hard. … One thing about it, we’re not going to quit.”

There was a time when the Twins owned the White Sox, going 29-7 against them in a stretch that included six straight victories to open 2011. But the wheels have come off for a Twins team that expected to contend for a third straight division title.

Calling up Hendriks, Parmelee and center fielder Joe Benson from Double-A New Britain gave the Twins three players in the starting lineup making their major league debuts for the first time in franchise history, according to research by the Elias Sports Bureau.

Benson misplayed a fly ball from De Aza in the fifth inning, diving for it and letting it get past him for a triple. Morel followed with a single to give the White Sox a 3-0 lead.

That was plenty for Peavy, who stranded runners on third base in the second and fourth innings but never really ran into trouble all night long. Joe Mauer went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts, hearing plenty of boos when Matt Thornton got him swinging in the eighth.

RANGERS 8, RAYS 0: At St. Petersburg, Fla., C.J. Wilson threw a five-hitter and David Murphy drove in four runs for AL West-leading Texas.

Wilson (15-6) matched his career high in wins from last year and became the first Texas left-hander to record 15 or more wins in consecutive seasons. He has three complete games this year.

RED SOX 14, BLUE JAYS 0: In Toronto, Jon Lester struck out 11 in seven innings to win his fourth straight decision and Marco Scutaro and David Ortiz each matched a career-high with four hits for Boston.

Lester (15-6) allowed just three hits, all singles, and walked one to improve to 4-0 with a 1.16 ERA in five starts since losing at Minnesota on Aug. 10. He also matched a season high for strikeouts and is 4-0 in his last six starts against Toronto.

National

ASTROS 4, PIRATES 1: In Pittsburgh, Brett Myers pitched into the eighth inning to earn his first win in 2 1/2 months for Houston.

Myers (4-13) allowed one run and four hits over 7 2/3 innings at soggy, chilly PNC Park as last-place Houston snapped a four-game losing streak. The right-hander had lost seven consecutive decisions since he pitched a four-hitter in a 7-3 victory at the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 17.

CARDINALS 4, BREWERS 2: Kyle Lohse threw six scoreless innings on eight days’ rest and host St. Louis got home runs from Jon Jay and Matt Holliday in the third inning, trimming Milwaukee’s formidable NL Central lead to 9 1/2 games.

Lohse (13-8) gave up four hits, struck out six and walked three.

ROCKIES 8, DIAMONDBACKS 3: In Denver, Troy Tulowitzki homered, Seth Smith tripled twice for Colorado. Jordan Pacheco and Carlos Gonzalez had two hits each for Colorado, which beat Arizona for just the fifth time in 17 games.

Aaron Hill and Justin Upton had two hits each for the Diamondbacks, who had won 12 of their last 13 to take a seven-game lead in the NL West.

MINNEAPOLIS — Jake Peavy struck out a season-high nine and Alex Rios homered to help the Chicago White Sox to a 3-0 victory against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.

Peavy (7-7) allowed four hits and walked two in 6 1/3 innings against a Twins team that had three players who were called up from Double-A in the last two days.

Alejandro De Aza had two hits, including a triple, and an RBI, and Sergio Santos picked up his 29th save for the White Sox, who have won three in a row and eight of 12.

Liam Hendriks (0-1) allowed three runs and four hits over seven innings in his major league debut. Chris Parmelee had two hits in his first game as a pro, but the Twins lost for the 14th time in 17 games.

Paul Konerko, who hasn’t hit a homer in his last 60 at-bats, got a much-needed day off, but the White Sox still managed to scratch together enough offense for Peavy. Brent Morel added an RBI single as the Sox beat the Twins for the eighth time in the past nine games in the series.

The White Sox are in the middle of a stretch of 28 straight games against the AL Central, but they only have three games left against division-leading Detroit. The Tigers beat the Indians 10-1 on Tuesday night, keeping the White Sox eight games back. Full Story

Tigers 10, Indians 1

CLEVELAND — Victor Martinez and the Detroit Tigers are taking nothing for granted. That attitude has them rolling over their closest challengers.

Martinez drove in three runs and the Tigers beat Cleveland to drop the Indians 8½ games back in the AL Central.

While the Tigers have not yet secured their first division title since winning the AL East in 1987, they are closing in on the Central crown after pushing around both the Indians and Chicago White Sox.

Detroit has won five straight and is 15-4 since Aug. 19. The Tigers arrived in Cleveland following a three-game series sweep against Chicago and now have won their last six meetings with the Indians after the Tribe took six of the first eight.

Mariners 2, Angels 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Felix Hernandez pitched eight innings of four-hit ball to win at Angel Stadium for the first time since 2006, and the Seattle Mariners snapped a five-game skid and slowed the Los Angeles Angels’ playoff surge with a victory.

Justin Smoak and Kyle Seager scored unearned runs for the Mariners, who had lost 18 of their last 21 games at Angel Stadium before Hernandez (14-11) outdueled Ervin Santana and silenced the Angels’ improved lineup for his sixth victory in eight starts.

Alberto Callaspo drove in an unearned run for the Angels, who committed four errors and dropped 3½ games behind Texas in the AL West standings. The loss was just the Angels’ second at home since Aug. 17.

The Rangers pounded Tampa Bay 8-0 earlier Tuesday. Los Angeles was a season-high 13 games over .500 after Monday’s win over the Mariners, but still faces an uphill climb in the regular season’s final three weeks to make the playoffs for the seventh time in 10 seasons.

Royals 7, Athletics 4

OAKLAND, Calif. — Eric Hosmer and Jeff Francoeur hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning, Danny Duffy won for the first time in more than a month and Kansas City beat Oakland for the second successive game.

Salvador Perez added three hits while six players drove in runs for the Royals, who have scored 29 runs in their past three road games.

Jemille Weeks had three hits and two RBI for Oakland, which has dropped two straight after sweeping Seattle over the weekend.

Duffy (4-8) allowed only four hits and had four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings in what is likely his final start of the year. Joakim Soria worked the ninth for his 26th save.

Gio Gonzalez (12-12) gave up a career-high 10 hits and walked three for the A’s.

Reds 4, Cubs 2 (13)

CHICAGO — Joey Votto hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the 13th inning and the Cincinnati Reds rebounded after blowing a two-run lead in the ninth.

Reds starter Mike Leake was closing in on his first career shutout and was one out away from a one-hitter when Starlin Castro reached on a two-out single and pinch-hitter Bryan LaHair drove a 2-0 pitch over the wall in right for Chicago’s third hit of the game and his first home run since Sept. 20, 2008, for the Seattle Mariners.

Leake bent over on the front of the mound as LaHair rounded the bases with the tying shot, but the Reds eventually recovered for their third win in nine games.

Dave Sappelt hit a leadoff double against John Grabow (3-1) in the 13th inning and Votto followed with his second run-scoring double of the game. Miguel Cairo added a two-out RBI single to make it 4-2.

Astros 4, Pirates 1

PITTSBURGH — Brett Myers pitched into the eighth inning to earn his first victory in 2½ months.

Myers (4-13) allowed one run and four hits over 7 2/3 innings at soggy, chilly PNC Park as last-place Houston snapped a four-game losing streak. The right-hander had lost seven consecutive decisions since he pitched a four-hitter in a 7-3 victory at the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 17.

Humberto Quintero had three RBI and Jimmy Paredes finished with three hits for the Astros, who have four of their last five against Pittsburgh but are 2-9 in their past 11 against everyone else.

Ryan Doumit hit a home run for Pittsburgh, which has lost two of three and seven of 10.

GAME RECAP

IMPACT PLAYER

Jake Peavy, White Sox

The Chicago righthander shut out the Twins over 6-plus innings on four hits and two walks

BY THE NUMBERS

6 Number of Australian-born players who have appeared in a game for the Twins

12 times the Twins have been shut out this season.

8-28 record for the Twins over their past 36 games.

ON DECK

Righthander Carl Pavano brings a career record of 104-100 into Wednesday’s game against the White Sox. Lefthander John Danks will start for the White Sox. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.

LA VELLE E. NEAL III

MINNEAPOLIS — White Sox rookie right-hander Zach Stewart came oh-so-close to pitching a perfect game in just his eighth career start. Instead, the 24-year-old settled for a one-hitter and a 4-0 Chicago victory Monday night in the second game of a double-header sweep.

Twins third baseman Danny Valencia broke up Stewart’s chances at history in the eighth inning with a leadoff double to right field. In the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Valencia made contact on a 93 mph sinker off the plate. The ball rolled past Chicago right fielder Alejandro De Aza and into the corner, allowing Valencia to get to second.

“It was close, but it’s just one of those things, he made a good swing on the ball, put it in play,” Stewart said of Valencia’s hit. “You’ve just got to tip your hat to him.”

The Target Field crowd of 39,849 stood to acknowledge Stewart’s effort. Meanwhile, Stewart kept rolling.

After Valencia’s leadoff double, catcher Tyler Flowers paid a visit to the mound to talk to Stewart. From there, the righty got three consecutive outs, as he induced a ground ball out, got Luke Hughes to pop out to first and struck out Brian Dinkelman to keep Valencia stranded on third.

“I thought he was going to crack a smirk or something out there, but he was like, ‘All right, let’s get the next guy.’ That’s good to see,” Flowers said of his trip to the mound. “I told him he was doing a good job. Let’s get the complete-game W.’”

That’s exactly what Stewart did. He struck out Jason Repko and pinch-hitter Jason Kubel for the first two outs of the ninth, then got the speedy Ben Revere to ground out to shortstop Alexei Ramirez to end the game and close the books on Stewart’s unlikely one-hitter.

“He didn’t have much stuff that was overpowering,” Valencia said. “He was just locating really well. He had all his pitches going. He was throwing everything for a strike.”

Stewart was aided by a handful of defensive plays, including a pair by Brent Morel. The third baseman snagged a grounder by Twins shortstop Trevor Plouffe in the fourth and made another nice play on Drew Butera’s grounder in the sixth to keep Stewart’s perfect game alive.

“It’s always nice to see a kid perform that way, no matter if it’s a pitcher or a hitter,” said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen — whose team won the opener 2-1, just hours after getting destroyed 18-2 in Detroit.

“A lot of satisfaction to see the way the kid threw the ball, kept the ball down, making very good pitches when he had to make them. I think a few ground balls there that the defense helped him a little bit to stay out of trouble. He threw a tremendous game.”

The Twins’ best chance for a hit prior to Valencia’s double came in the bottom of the seventh, when former MVP Joe Mauer slapped a hard liner to Ramirez at short. It ended as a harmless out and got Stewart past the three-time batting champion in Minnesota’s batting order.

That was also about the time when the Chicago rookie realized what was on the line.

“I would say I probably noticed it in the fifth or sixth,” Stewart said. “But it still wasn’t one of those things where I was like, ‘I’m going for a no-hitter or perfect game.’ Going into the eighth I think was when I finally was like, ‘You’ve got to focus and bear down to get through this.’ “

Stewart, a third-round pick by Cincinnati in 2008, made his major league debut this season on June 16 with the Toronto Blue Jays. He made just three starts for Toronto before he was traded to Chicago along with Jason Frasor for Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen. Stewart was 1-2 with a 5.86 ERA in six games (four starts) with the White Sox before Monday’s one-hitter. His other win also was against the Twins.

Prior to Monday, Stewart’s longest start was seven innings. That came in his big league debut, when he allowed two runs on seven hits against Baltimore. He also set career highs Monday with 114 pitches and nine strikeouts.

Stewart’s two previous starts entering Monday were not pretty. He allowed seven runs on seven hits against the Angels on Aug. 24, and gave up six runs on seven hits in just 4 2/3 innings against the same Twins team Aug. 30.

One start later, however, Stewart clicked on all cylinders against Minnesota.

“They got me pretty good last time,” Stewart said. “They’re a good lineup. I guess I just kept the ball down more today.”

The last perfect game tossed by the White Sox was in 2009, when Mark Buehrle did so against the Tampa Bay Rays. Charlie Robertson is the only other White Sox pitcher to throw a perfect game, accomplishing the feat in 1922 against Detroit.

While Stewart missed out on joining that select club, he gave Chicago a glimpse of what it might have for years to come.

“It’s good to see,” Flowers said. “Hopefully we can put a run together here toward the end. But if not, it’s good to have that kind of arm for the next few years.”

And for the White Sox, Monday’s sweep was a good way to bounce back from Sunday night’s disaster.

“That’s great for us and the ballclub,” Guillen said. “It’s great for them to win a game. In the last couple days, we’ve been beat up pretty good.”