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At age 36 John Miller Jersey , James Shields is not in the picture of the future for the rebuilding Chicago White Sox.

Still, he remains a big part of the present.

Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia homered and Shields limited Minnesota to four hits over seven innings, leading the White Sox to a 6-1 victory over the Twins on Wednesday night.

Shields (3-9) struck out five and walked just two in his only scoreless start of the season. The veteran right-hander lasted just 4 2/3 innings in a loss to Oakland on Friday. Before that, he had worked at least six innings in 11 straight turns and has gone at least seven innings five times. After struggling through the last two years following his arrival in a trade with San Diego, Shields has begun to settle in.

”He’s a guy that kind of balances out our rotation,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. ”He shows these guys how to grind through an inning, get through certain situations, remain calm, understand that no matter how much havoc occurs around you, the best thing is to try to execute pitches.”

Tim Anderson and Charlie Tilson each had two hits and an RBI for Chicago, which has won three straight games and four of five.

”The pitching and the defense were really good,” Shields said, ”and the hitting was phenomenal.”

Ehire Adrianza had four hits and an RBI for Minnesota, which has dropped two straight games and five of six. Twins starter Kyle Gibson (2-6) allowed five runs on 11 hits in seven innings.

The White Sox took a 3-0 lead in the fourth. Abreu and Garcia led off with singles. One out later, Leury Garcia doubled to drive in Abreu. Anderson followed with a run-scoring single, and Omar Narvaez drove in a run with a ground out. Abreu’s solo homer in the fifth stretched the lead to 4-0.

Avisail Garcia’s solo homer in the eighth made it 6-0. The Twins tacked on a run in the ninth, but they fell to 34-42 to match their season high of eight games below the .500 mark after another night of chasing too many pitches out of the strike zone.

”Lefties had a hard time laying off the slider, especially down and in,” manager Paul Molitor said. ”We really didn’t hit too many balls hard.”

BALK TALK

With two outs in the sixth, Eddie Rosario walked and Brian Dozier singled to put runners on first and third and give Minnesota a chance to close the gap. But then the game took a bizarre turn. With Max Kepler stepping to the plate, Twins third base coach Gene Glynn suddenly was ejected by third base umpire Gerry Davis.

”He had wanted a balk the inning before Lorenzo Alexander Jersey ,” Davis said to a pool reporter. ”I explained to him it was not a balk, told him I wasn’t sure he knew the definition of what a balk was for a stop. The next half inning he came out, brought it up again … and I ejected him.”

BALK TALK II

Later in the at-bat, Shields faked a pickoff throw to first and then spun around to throw to third baseman Yolmer Sanchez. Shields was called for a balk, which allowed Rosario to score and Dozier to move up to second.

Renteria argued, claiming Shields stepped off before faking to first, which is within the rules. After huddling, the umpires overturned the balk, sending the runners back. Molitor came out to protest and was quickly ejected.

”It was suspicious in the fact that we couldn’t tell if he disengaged with the rubber at all,” Molitor said. ”There’s a lot of things about the move that are suspect to me.”

Shields then struck out Kepler looking on a 71-mph curveball to end the inning.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Twins CF Byron Buxton (broken left big toe) is scheduled to play both games of a doubleheader with Triple-A Rochester on Thursday. He’ll DH one game and play the field in the other.

UP NEXT

RHP Jake Odorizzi (3-5, 4.97 ERA) pitches the final game of the three-game series for the Twins, looking to bounce back a rough outing. He gave up for six runs on six hits in 1 2/3 innings against Texas on Saturday.

RHP Lucas Giolito (5-7, 7.01 ERA) takes the mound for the White Sox, aiming to win a second straight start.

A show of power helped take the edge off the Colorado Rockies‘ recent pitching problems.

Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and Ian Desmond homered in succession during a six-run third inning, German Marquez pitched effectively for six innings and Colorado snapped an eight-game home losing streak by beating the New York Mets 10-8 on Tuesday night.

Carlos Gonzalez also went deep for the Rockies, who won at home for the first time since May 29. Arenado finished a triple shy of the cycle with four RBIs in a game that was delayed 1 hour, 20 minutes because of heavy rain.

”I think that just kind of shows the resilience of our team,” Story said. ”We know things aren’t always going to go our way and we’re not going to win every time we score a lot of runs. That’s just how it is. But sometimes it’s kind of contagious. We’re just trying to hit the ball hard and few of them went out tonight.”

Marquez (5-7) allowed four runs on six hits in picking up his first win in nearly a month. He struck out four and walked two and helped himself with a pair of hits, scoring a run and driving in another to help build a big enough cushion to outlast the Mets. Colorado, which had lost eight of 10 coming into the game Kyle Williams Jersey , had seen its bullpen go 0-7 collectively with two saves in seven chances this month.

”The greater majority of games over the last couple of weeks, we’re scoring enough runs,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. ”(Jacob) deGrom shut us down last night. But the offense is picking up, the averages are climbing. The situational hitting is better. We got 16 hits, a lot of contributions across the board, our pitcher included.”

Jason Vargas (2-6) allowed seven runs on nine hits in a season-low 2 1/3 innings and became the first Mets pitcher since Bartolo Colon in 2014 against the Los Angeles Angels to surrender homers to three batters in a row.

The game was tied at 2 when the Rockies went up with their big inning during which they sent 11 batters to the plate against two Mets pitchers.

Charlie Blackmon singled off Vargas to start the third and Arenado followed by homering into the left field bleachers. Story then drove a 1-0 offering from Vargas into the same general area before Desmond went the opposite way with a drive into the right field seats. It was the eighth time in franchise history that three Rockies hitters had gone deep in succession.

”They were just bad pitches and they all got hammered,” Vargas said.

After Vargas issued a one-out walk, Hansel Robles relieved and gave up run-scoring hits to Noel Cuevas and Marquez as Colorado pulled out to an 8-2 lead.

Gonzalez tacked on another run when he homered off Robles in the fourth and Arenado added an RBI single in the fifth.

”When you come to Coors Field, you tell your pitchers to not worry about what happens here and you move on,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. ”Forget about it.”

The Mets got an RBI single from pinch-hitter Jose Bautista and subsequently loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, adding a second run on a two-out passed ball to pull to within 10-6. But Adam Ottavino induced an inning-ending groundout and struck out the side in the eighth to help fend off the Mets.

The Mets added a pair of runs on RBI groundouts in the ninth before Wade Davis fanned Michael Conforto for the final out.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Mets: RHP AJ Ramos will have season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, the team announced. Ramos had a 6.41 ERA in 28 appearances this season. … OF Jay Bruce, who missed four of the previous five games because of right hip soreness, has been placed on the 10-day disabled list. ”He was really hurting,” manager Mickey Callaway said. ”So we made the decision to go ahead and put him on the DL so we can get him right so he can be the impactful player that he can be.” Callaway said Bruce was headed back to New York to be evaluated by team doctors and undergo an MRI. ”We’ll go from there, see what’s going on exactly.”

Rockies: RHP Scott Oberg threw a side session Tuesday for the first time since going on the 10-day DL earlier this month because of a back strain. Oberg is eligible for reinstatement Wednesday, though there’s no timetable yet for his return.

UP NEXT

Mets: RHP Seth Lugo (2-2, 2.49 ERA) has gone 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in his three starts this season.

Rockies: RHP Chad Bettis (5-1, 4.65 ERA) makes his 15th start of the season and the seventh at home, where he has no decisions in six previous outings.

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