Trevor Larnach, Byron Buxton power Twins win over White Sox

When Trevor Larnach lifted a go-ahead home run over the right-field wall in the sixth inning Wednesday night, it was fitting it came with no runners on base.

The Twins were busy on the base paths totaling 12 hits, six walks, two hit batsmen against seven Chicago White Sox pitchers. They had at least two batters reach base in each of the first seven innings, generating 15 at-bats with a runner in scoring position.

For all the baserunners the Twins accumulated, they still had trouble pushing them across the plate. In a 6-3 victory at Target Field with an announced crowd of 12,407, they left a season-high 13 runners on base, matching their highest total in a nine-inning game since 2021.

Hey, baby steps for a slumping offense.

Larnach’s third homer in the past five games put the Twins ahead after they coughed up a two-run lead, and Byron Buxton followed with a two-run, two-out homer in the seventh inning.

“Sometimes that can drag you down after a few innings of that, not bringing them home,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But that didn’t happen. We kept pushing.”

The Twins left eight men on base through the first three innings with only one run to show for it. In the first inning, they loaded the bases with one out. Carlos Correa, trying to break out of his slow start, rocketed a ball directly at White Sox second baseman Brooks Baldwin, and Luke Keaschall didn’t have time to retreat before he was doubled off second base for an inning-ending double play.

Wilson issued two walks to open the third inning before he induced a double-play grounder against Correa. Two pitches later, Ty France finally delivered a hit with a runner in scoring position when he thumped an RBI single up the middle. Keaschall, the runner on third base, pumped his fist as he jogged to the plate.

Following France’s run-scoring hit, the Twins produced two more singles to load the bases before Harrison Bader flew out to center on a sliding catch from Luis Robert Jr.

“It was kind of brutal when I got doubled up on second earlier in the game,” Keaschall said. “I’ve got to try to get back a little bit better. … Then we left the bases loaded a couple times, but we found a way.”

The Twins let the White Sox hang around for a while. Edouard Julien hit a leadoff double in the fourth inning and scored on a two-out single from Larnach, but their two-run lead disappeared during an ugly fifth inning.

Twins starter David Festa opened the fifth inning with a five-pitch walk to Baldwin, the No. 8 batter in the Sox lineup, before giving up a single to pinch hitter Bobby Dalbec in a 10-pitch at-bat.

BOXSCORE: Twins 6, Chicago White Sox 3

MLB standings

Cole Sands replaced Festa with two runners on base and none out. Sands walked his first batter on four pitches, then allowed a run to score on a wild pitch. Andrew Benintendi, the next batter, dropped an RBI single in center.

After an infield pop-up, Sands induced a ground ball to the right side of the infield. With an opportunity to start a potential inning-ending double play, Keaschall watched the ball roll underneath his glove, briefly dropping to a knee in frustration, as it trickled into the outfield to allow the go-ahead run to score.

The Twins responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning. The first three Twins batters reached base, which included an opposite-field RBI single from Brooks Lee in a 2-2 count.

Larnach hit a first-pitch fastball against Jordan Leasure with his sixth-inning homer.

“It hit off the end of my bat, but I guess it makes up for the 111 [mph] outs,” Larnach said.