Slow start dooms Chris Sale, White Sox in loss to Twins

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Two bad innings sunk Chris Sale and the White Sox on Paul Konerko Day.

Sale allowed four runs between the second and third innings and the White Sox came up just shy against Trevor May in a 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Saturday afternoon. Sale struck out 10 batters over eight innings but also surrendered a pair of solo home runs as the White Sox lost for the fourth time in five tries. May struck out nine batters over seven innings.

[MORE: Paul Konerko on future - 'Maybe I'm good at something else']

Aside from the second and third, Sale looked extremely sharp. He faced the minimum in five of the first seven innings he pitched.

But Torii Hunter started the second inning with a solo shot to left field and Eduardo Nunez hit one to left-center to put the Twins ahead 2-0. An inning later, Minnesota capitalized on a Conor Gillaspie error to stretch the lead to 4-1. Brian Dozier doubled, Shane Robinson had an RBI ground out and Trevor Plouffe singled in a run to give the Twins a three-run lead.

[NBC SPORTS SHOP: Gear up, White Sox fans!]

That was just enough for May, who needed only 80 pitches to complete seven innings. The White Sox got one run in the second when Adam LaRoche doubled and later scored on Alexei Ramirez’s RBI single. An inning later, they cut it to one run again when Adam Eaton tripled in a run and scored on Melky Cabrera’s RBI groundout.

Jose Abreu’s 17-game hitting streak ended as he went 0-for-4.

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