Twins Complete Sweep Of White Sox, Essentially Clinch AL Central

Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Delmon Young continued his career season with three hits, including a two-run homer, as Minnesota moved one step closer to an American League Central title with an 8-5 victory over Chicago, finishing off a three-game sweep at U.S. Cellular Field.

Young, batting. 300 on the nose this season, also scored twice, while Michael Cuddyer also drove in a pair of runs. Carl Pavano (17-11) picked up the victory, giving up five runs on eight hits with one strikeout and two walks over five-plus frames. Matt Capps pitched the ninth for his 13th save, as Minnesota won its fourth straight game. The Twins magic number is now 8 to clinch the division.

Paul Konerko, who was hit by a pitch in the lip during his first at-bat, homered for the White Sox. Mark Buehrle (12-11) was saddled with the loss after giving up six runs on eight hits over five frames.

The Twins put up a three-spot in the top of the second frame. Cuddyer was plunked by a pitch then Young singled to left. Jim Thome followed with a run- scoring base hit before a double-play grounder wiped him out. Jason Repko came through with a run-scoring single to deep short and J.J. Hardy followed with a two-bagger that plated Repko for the third run.

Konerko got his arms extended on a first-pitch fastball in the third, lofting a two-out drive into the seats in left. An inning later, Alexei Ramirez singled, stole second and came around to score on a bloop hit off the bat of Juan Pierre.

After seeing their three-run edge chopped to one, the Twins came through again with three runs in the fifth. Denard Span worked a walk in front of Orlando Hudson's single to right. Joe Mauer then reached first when Konerko didn't handle his grounder, loading the bases with nobody out. Cuddyer's sacrifice fly scored Span, but A.J. Pierzynski came up to catch Alex Rios' throw and fired to third in time to nab Hudson, who was trying to tag and advance on the fly out.

Chicago again responded, using its power to push across three runs in the home sixth. Back-to-back shots from Pierzynski and Ramirez started the frame with Brent Morel contributing a double to right. He got into a rundown on Pierre's soft grounder, giving Pierre time to take second then the speedster used his wheels to swipe third. He scored on Rios' force out slow roller, cutting the margin to 6-5.

The Twins added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth on Cuddyer's run-scoring single and Matt Tolbert's sacrifice fly.

Pierre stole his 57th and 58th bases of the season...Konerko's homer was his 37th of the campaign, while Ramirez hit his 17th and Pierzynski his eighth...Young swatted his 18th home run of the season for the Twins....Minnesota holds a 13-5 edge in the season series, including seven of the nine games played in Chicago...The Twins are major-league best 42-16 since the All-Star break...Pavano improved to 3-1 against the White Sox this season.