Bats support Peavy's impressive victory over Twins

MINNEAPOLIS -- Jake Peavy has been overshadowed at times this season in the White Sox rotation by standout Chris Sale, but the veteran right-hander added another layer on Tuesday night to the argument over who is the staff ace.

Peavy held the Twins to two runs on five hits to guide the White Sox to a series-evening 4-3 victory at Target Field. Traversing through seven innings, Peavy maintained command over the Twins to record his fifth start of surrendering two or fewer runs.

Clutch hitting has been an elusive trait for the White Sox, but they received critical contributions from the bottom of the order late in the game. A two-run eighth, highlighted by an RBI double by catcher Tyler Flowers, broke a 2-2 tie and helped keep Peavy's strong performance from being spoiled.

"It was a good team win," Peavy said. "I think everybody contributed tonight against some adversity. I felt like some calls that should have gone the other way didn't go our way. When you can keep your composure, and that's not easy especially with myself, and win those games shows some character."

Peavy didn't allow a controversial call in the fifth derail his outing.

Twins designated hitter Oswaldo Arcia hit a two-out ground-ball single into right field, bringing Justin Morneau around from second for a chance to score. Fielding a well-placed throw from Alex Rios, Flowers sprawled out at home plate to seemingly make the tag on the sliding Morneau.

Despite replays that pointed to the contrary, Morneau was called safe, drawing the Twins within one run of tying the game. Peavy, Flowers and manager Robin Ventura argued profusely to no avail.

"I knew I tagged him the first time," Flowers said. "I look at the umpire and he's not doing anything, so you kind of have two choices. You can either be an idiot and sit there complain or you can tag the guy again because he's off the plate. He saw the play differently."

The White Sox offense, which has been inconsistent this season, sparked to life slightly by seeing eight batters contribute at least one hit.

Back-to-back second-inning home runs by Adam Dunn and Dayan Viciedo propelled the Sox to an early 2-0 advantage. After having a powerful shot to center field robbed at the wall by the Twins' Aaron Hicks in a 10-3 loss on Monday, Dunn got his revenge by breaking out of an 0-for-14 slump with his seventh homer of the year.

Viciedo matched Dunn by crushing a slider from Twins starter Kevin Correia into the third deck in left.

The Twins evened the scored in the seventh on an RBI single by Trevor Plouffe, but a half-inning later, the Sox were back in front to stay. Corriea, who unraveled after seven solid innings, was pulled after Flowers' double put Chicago up, 3-2.

"Correia was good. After the two in the second, he was running through them," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He left a couple balls up in the eighth and it was double, double, and there you have it and he's out of the ballgame."

Reliever Casey Fien couldn't get the Twins out of the inning. Fien gave up an RBI single to Alexi Ramirez, providing the Sox an insurance run.

Setup man Jesse Crain, who has been untouchable of late, replaced Peavy in the eighth, and eased to his 14th straight scoreless appearance. Crain (1.00 ERA) has not allowed a run in 13 1/3 innings, striking out 19 in that stretch. Closer Addison Reed overcame a two-out double by Morneau for his 12th save of the season.

The White Sox recovered well from Monday's mistake-riddled loss that prompted Ventura to call a rare workout session five hours before Tuesday's game, demanding a renewed focus on basic fielding fundamentals.

The extra work seemed to have delivered the right message as the White Sox turned out an overall sound game, despite Dunn's fluke error in the sixth. Ramirez fired a throw to Dunn at first in time to retire Brian Dozier, but the throw tore through the webbing of Dunn's glove.

"If something stupid like that is going to happen, it's going to happen to me. So pile on. Bring it on," Dunn said with a grin.