Twins hit season's 200th home run in 6-2 win over White Sox

CHICAGO – Boston can be a great place to be in early September. It's a great eating town. And the walking tour is very informative.

It's also where the Twins might make history.

At the rate they are hitting home runs, they will eclipse the league record for the most in a single season during their Sept. 3-5 series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. They reached a notable milestone on Friday, as they slugged two more home runs during a 6-2 win over the White Sox.

Max Kepler and Nelson Cruz went deep on Friday, with Kepler's three-run shot becoming the Twins' 200th of the season. They've reached that mark in 103 games, the fastest of any team in league history. The 2005 Rangers held the previous record, set in 122 games. They are chugging toward the single-season record of 267 home runs, hit by the 2018 Yankees.

The Twins are averaging 1.95 home runs a game, putting them on pace to set the record during that first week in September.

Kepler found out about the significance of his second-inning home run while watching highlights.

"I just watched it flash across the screen," Kepler said. "It's pretty cool. It's special."

Cruz added a homer in the seventh off Chicago reliever Ross Detwiler, his seventh over the past five games and 10th this month. Righthander Michael Pineda went seven innings, the second consecutive game a Twins starter has done so, and the Twins have taken the first two games of the four-game series at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Twins are 6-2 against Chicago this season and 30-16 against them since the beginning of 2017.

White Sox rookie righthander Dylan Cease, who was making his fourth major league start, found out what the Twins were all about in the second inning. The Twins took a 1-0 lead when Luis Arraez tagged up from third and scored on Byron Buxton's fly ball to shallow left field. John Jay caught the ball just before bumping into shortstop Ryan Goins, giving Arraez time to score.

That brought up Kepler. Cease fell behind Kepler 3-1, then threw him two curveballs. Kepler took the first one for a strike, then struck the next one. The ball took off for the right field stands and became the 200th home run of the season for the BombaSquad. The three-run blast put the Twins up 4-0.

"I feel like I saw a lot [of curveballs] in that at-bat," Kepler said, "So I was kind of adjusted to it."

Kepler has a team-high 27 home runs during his breakout season.

"I think the more pitches he sees and the more he comes to make adjustments during the course of an at-bat, the better off he is," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said, "but I think it's because of the type of hitter that he is."

Cruz added an RBI single to put the Twins ahead 5-0 as they sent 10 men to the plate in the inning.

Pineda gave up a two-run homer to Adam Engel in third but settled down after that, retiring 12 of the last 13 batters he faced. Lefthander Lewis Thorpe finished up with two scoreless innings.

"There are a lot guys in our bullpen that needed to get a few days and to catch up," Baldelli said. "We were able to do that."

As Baldelli talked, his players chowed down on deep-dish pizza. After plundering White Sox pitchers on Friday, they went after Chicago's more vital resource.