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Jermaine Dye homered for the third straight game and Uribe added a two-run drive in the fifth to help struggling Chicago beat the Minnesota Twins 6-2 on Thursday.
“This kid will take the ugliest swing and the ugliest at-bat,” manager Ozzie Guillen said of Uribe. “We’ve seen that for four, five years. Sometimes you get upset and you scratch your head. You ask how this kid plays at the big league level and then all of a sudden a couple of days later, he’s unbelievable.
“I think the best thing he did today was when he broke up the double play.”
Dye’s leadoff homer in the fifth cut Minnesota’s lead to 2-1. Joe Crede doubled with one out and Uribe, batting just .191 this season, went deep to put the White Sox in front.
Chicago tacked on one in the seventh and two in the eighth, highlighted by Uribe’s heady play on the basepaths.
With the bases loaded in the eighth, Toby Hall hit a grounder to third that looked like an inning-ending double play. But Uribe slid hard to take out second baseman Brendan Harris and prevent a relay to first as Dye scored from third to make it 5-2.
“I think it’s a good slide. I got to help my team” Uribe said.
“I was the first one to jump out of my seat,” Guillen said. “It’s something we are missing, not just the White Sox, but baseball. ... It was the way I grew up watching baseball, Don Baylor and all those guys sliding into second base trying to get you. Now you slide into second base and you get dirty and you are a bad guy.”
John Danks (3-3) made it through five innings, giving up six hits and two runs, and Chicago won for just the second time in nine games.
Twins starter Kevin Slowey (0-2), who came off the disabled list Wednesday (biceps strain) and made his first start since April 3, allowed three runs and four hits in five innings.
The Twins scored two in the fifth as Matt Tolbert and Mauer delivered two-out RBI singles.
Notes: Twins 2B Nick Punto was a late scratch because of a cramp in his left hamstring and was replaced by Brendan Harris. ... The White Sox, who were 0-6 on their last road trip before going 2-1 in their brief homestand with the Twins, now head out on a 10-game road trip to Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. ... The double steal gave Thome his first stolen base since Sept. 25, 2002. ... Twins reliever Pat Neshek was removed in the eighth with a right elbow strain after throwing two pitches to Crede, the fourth batter he faced. “I felt something tweak and the trainers came out and we just wanted to play it safe. We wanted to make sure that nothing bad would happen,” Neshek said, adding he will be examined Friday. ... Chicago reliever Octavio Dotel allowed one hit in two innings and had five consecutive strikeouts.
