Buxton, Kirilloff help Twins rally past White Sox. MLB-worst Chicago falls to 3-20

MINNEAPOLIS — Alex Kirilloff hit a two-out, game-ending single after Byron Buxton led off the ninth inning with a tying homer, and the major league-worst Chicago White Sox fell to 3-20 with a 6-5 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.

Chicago joined Cincinnati in 2022, Detroit in 2003, the St. Louis Browns in 1936 and the Cleveland Spiders in 1899 as teams to start 3-20. The 1988 Baltimore Orioles began 1-22.

Trevor Larnach hit a 433-foot, two-run homer in the eighth to get the Twins within 5-4 and help set up the heroics by Buxton and Kirilloff against Steven Wilson (1-2). Buxton hit a line drive off the left-field foul pole, and Kiriloff pulled the ball into right field to score pinch-runner Austin Martin with the winning run.

Jay Jackson (1-1) allowed one run in two innings of relief for the Twins, striking out four.

Eloy Jiménez hit a three-run homer and starter Erick Fedde struck out a career-high 11 batters for the White Sox. Fedde allowed one run on three hits — all in the first inning — in his best performance since signing with Chicago during the offseason. The right-hander spent 2023 pitching in South Korea.

After his rocky first inning, Fedde retired the next 13 batters in order. That included two strikeouts each in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings.

Andrew Benintendi put Chicago ahead 5-2 with a two-run single in the eighth.

Jiménez's three-run homer just inside the left-field foul pole gave Chicago a 3-1 lead in the fourth. Twins starter Pablo López threw 38 pitches in the inning, his last. It was the second time in his past three starts he was pulled after four.

Chicago’s Garrett Crochet (1-3, 5.61 ERA) is scheduled to face Joe Ryan (0-1, 3.57) Wednesday night in the third game of the four-game series.