Chicago White Sox lefthander Chris Sale stands 6 feet, 6 inches. He has a blazing fastball and a biting slider and has been a nuisance to hitters since making his major league debut in 2010.

Especially the Twins.

"The best lefthander in the game, if you ask me," Twins second baseman Brian Dozier said.

For one night, it all changed as the Twins pounded Sale and the White Sox for seven third-inning runs on the way to a 12-2 victory. Sale left after the third inning, matching the shortest outing of his career. The nine runs he gave up (eight earned) were also a career high. It made a winner out of Twins righthander Trevor May (2-1), who is tied for the team lead in victories.

The Twins came into the game looking to be aggressive against Sale and scored one run in each of the first two innings before burying Sale in the third with a bunch of seeing-eye hits early and one big blast late in the inning.

"You can't let too much go over the plate," Dozier said. "He's going to make mistakes but if you get anything — if you're hunting the fastball and he flips a breaking ball over the middle — you've got to attack because the next one might be 98 [miles per hour] in and out and pretty much unhittable."

Twins righthander called up from minors on Thursday
Video (01:28): Tonkin believes he's made progress

Joe Mauer's RBI single gave the Twins a 1-0 lead in the first. Then Danny Santana, running on the pitch, scored from first on Dozier's bloop single to center in the second. Chicago's Adam Eaton hesitated before throwing the ball in and Jose Abreu bobbled the ball and couldn't get the relay throw off.

The White Sox scored twice in the top of the third to tie the score at 2-2 on RBI singles by Melky Cabrera and Abreu.

Mauer pounded a double to right-center to lead off the third, the ball bouncing off Eaton's glove as he dived, and Trevor Plouffe walked. Kurt Suzuki squared up a 96-mph Sale pitch and lined a single to center, scoring Mauer.

Chicago pulled in its infield. Kennys Vargas struck out. Eduardo Escobar poked a two-run single past Alexei Ramirez at short and advanced to third when Eaton's throw was closer to the White Sox dugout than home plate — plus Sale didn't back up the play. Shane Robinson hit one just past the reach of Micah Johnson at second. The Twins led 6-2 without hitting Sale very hard.

But if those were jabs, the haymaker came in the form of Dozier's three-run homer to left.

"Our approaches were good," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "We got his pitch count up, we made him work. Once we got it rolling there, we were able to put a big number up."

May, who left his last start when he was hit on the elbow by a line drive, held Chicago to two runs over 5â…” innings on 10 hits, one walk and four strikeouts. Mauer was 3-for-5 and is now batting .318. Dozier was 2-for-5 with four RBI.

"We dropped a few little bleeders in there and I felt like he got frustrated," Dozier said.

Sale (2-1) entered Thursday 7-1 with a 2.37 ERA in his career against the Twins. The lone loss came on June 19, 2013 at Target Field when the Twins won 7-4 behind a three-run homer by Dozier. In fact, with three home runs, Dozier is the only Twins player to go deep off Sale in 18 games (10 starts).

Asked if knew the common thread in their two victories over Sale, Dozier immediately replied, "Three-run homers."

Remember the pitch for the first one?

"Oh yeah," Dozier said. "It was a fastball, 97 miles an hour. Middle in."