MINNEAPOLIS — The Chicago White Sox already were enjoying quite a season despite missing two key players. Now with Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert back in the lineup, the AL Central leaders are looking even more formidable.
Jimenez hit two homers with five RBIs for the second straight game. Robert came off the 60-day injured list to deliver an RBI double and single, and the White Sox cruised past the Minnesota Twins 11-1 Monday night.
“Getting both those guys back is kind of a reminder of what they can do to help us,” manager Tony La Russa said. Tim Anderson led off the game with a home run for the second day in a row, and Lucas Giolito pitched a two-hit ball for eight innings as the White Sox won their fourth in a row.
Jimenez became the first White Sox player with consecutive games of at least two homers and five RBIs, and the first in the majors since Bryce Harper for Washington in 2015.
Jimenez has five homers and 14 RBIs in 10 games since his return from the injured list after missing all of the season with a ruptured pectoral tendon sustained in spring training.
“Yes, I feel really good,” Jimenez said of having his timing down at the plate.
Giolito (9-8) faced the minimum over the first seven innings. The first hit he allowed came on a hard grounder from Luis Arraez to start the fifth inning that glanced off Giolito’s leg.
Miguel Sano homered off Giolito.
“It was a tough start for us and then when we would get in the batter’s box, Giolito was real sharp,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He has excellent stuff, real swing-and-miss stuff. Tonight was one of the nights where I think his command matched his stuff and he was just exceptionally difficult on us.”
Beau Burrows (0-1) allowed seven runs — six earned — over two innings in his first career start. He was claimed off waivers from Detroit on June 22 and was recalled from Triple-A on July 27. His ERA rose to 13.91 in six appearances this season.
Anderson lined the fifth pitch of the game into the left-field seats. He opened Sunday night’s game at Wrigley Field with a home run, sending the White Sox toward a three-game sweep over the Cubs.
Jimenez hit a towering homer off the facing of the second deck above the batter’s eye in center field for a two-run homer in the first inning. He connected for a three-run drive in the second.
Yoan Moncada homered in the ninth for Chicago.
“You can’t underestimate when you get a start like that,” La Russa said of the first-inning homers by Anderson and Jimenez. “They set a certain tempo for the game and our guys stayed hungry the whole time.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
