MINNEAPOLIS -- White Sox manager Robin Ventura approached Jose Abreu at his locker following Sundays tight victory over the Twins, and the two shared a joke. Womens Ducks Jerseys .It was a moment of levity at the end of a stressful day.Abreu hit two three-run homers and drove in a career-best seven runs, and Chicago used Tim Andersons two-run double in the 12th inning to beat Minnesota 13-11 for a split of their four-game series.I will say that this is my best moment of this season, Abreu said.Abreu, Anderson and Melky Cabrera had three hits apiece, helping the White Sox overcome four homers for Minnesota. The teams combined for 18 homers in the series.Abreu fell one shy of the franchise record of eight RBI in a game, a mark shared by three people, including Ventura.We were joking about the RBI, our record that he owns, Abreu said through a translator. I was one short, but we were all joking about it.While Abreu delivered another impressive performance, Anderson had the biggest hit of the day. With one out and runners on second and third in the 12th, the rookie doubled to deep left against Pat Dean (1-6).Juan Minaya (1-0) earned his first major league win. He pitched a scoreless 11th but walked the first two batters in the 12th. Tommy Kahnle then came in and earned his third career save, retiring Eddie Rosario with the bases loaded for the final out.Im not going to tell you what was going through my mind, Ventura said of Minnesotas threat in the 12th. But theyre not easy.Byron Buxton hit his first career grand slam for Minnesota, and Brian Dozier, Miguel Sano and John Ryan Murphy also went deep. The Twins hit 11 homers in the four-game set.To have an offensive day like that, and to really have the guys you want in the game at the end with a chance, Minnesota manager Paul Molitor said of the frustrating pitching performance. I dont know how many of those weve had that would rank up there with that one.Abreu opened the scoring with a three-run shot in the first. He added an RBI single in the fifth and another three-run drive in the seventh, trimming Minnesotas lead to 9-7.Abreu is batting .370 with 11 homers and 30 RBI in his past 31 games.Hes swinging it, this is what you really expect out of him, Ventura said. I know that its pretty free and easy right now. But even the home runs, thats really more indicative of him. Right now hes feeling pretty good about it, sitting in the middle of our lineup driving in some runs.Buxton had three hits, and Dozier connected for his 35th homer. Sano hit his 22nd and Murphy added his first for the Twins after being recalled a day earlier.TRAILING ONLY KILLEBREWDozier leads the majors with 21 homers since the All-Star break. He has the most home runs of any Twins player since Josh Willingham also hit 35 in 2012.Only Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew has hit more homers in a single season in Twins history.Dont be putting me in Killebrews, in a sentence with him, Dozier said. Thats pretty cool. Weve still got a little ways to go, but thats pretty cool.UP NEXTWhite Sox: Chris Sale (15-7, 3.10 ERA) starts Monday against the Detroit Tigers, who counter with Justin Verlander (14-7, 3.30 ERA). Sale is 1-2 with a 3.38 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 29 1/3 innings in four starts against Detroit this season. Verlander has allowed more than two runs just once in his past 12 starts.Twins: Molitor said rookie right-hander Jose Berrios (2-4, 9.24 ERA) will be called up to start Monday against Kansas City. The Royals counter with RHP Ian Kennedy (9-9, 3.66 ERA). Cheap Ducks Jerseys .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. Youth Ducks Jerseys . Tuesdays surgery at Atlantas Piedmont Hospital was performed by Dr. Xavier Duralde and Hawks team physician Dr. Michael Bernot. http://www.authenticducksshopnhl.com/ . 31, the CFL club announced Monday. The team also has yet to decide on the future of Doug Berry, who began the season as a consultant to the head coach but took over the offensive co-ordinators duties in July. The first European Championship with 24 teams wasnt to everyones taste.Some atrociously dull games and unambitious pack-the-defense tactics from weaker teams lent weight to critics laments that the addition of eight more nations watered down the quality of the football.But the wider door also ushered in underdogs who delighted and, in the case of Wales and Iceland, amazed. The convoluted process for determining which teams advanced to the knockout stages produced drama but also took super-brains to understand. Bottom-line: The jury is still out on whether the expanded formats pluses outweigh its minuses.Of the 107 goals before Sundays final, where France plays Cristiano Ronaldos Portugal in the tournaments 51st game, one of the best was scored in the first match. Dimitri Payets curling, left-footed late winner for the under-pressure host nation against Romania made the West Ham winger the first darling of a tournament where expected stars barely glittered, to name just goalless German forward Thomas Mueller and his Bayern Munich teammate Robert Lewandowski. The Poles record-equaling 13 goals in tournament qualifying were followed by just one more strike in France, when Poland was counting on him most.Thankfully, the group-stage departure of Russia and the last-16 loss of England, humiliated 2-1 by a country, Iceland, with a population one-tenth that of inner London, saw the back of their mindless hooligans. Fun-loving fans from surprise semifinalist Wales had the last laugh, and the slow hand-clapping Icelanders left in the quarterfinals with a last HUH! -- a battle-cry subsequently adopted by delirious French crowds when Les Bleus beat their major tournament nemesis since 1958, Germany, to make the final.In short, the 31-day tournament, held amid intense but not overly intrusive post-terror attack security, produced a harvest of both highs and lows.Heres a closer look at some of them:---HOOLIGANSThe lowest of the lows. The viciousness of seemingly combat-trained Russian thugs who charged English fans before the teams 1-1 group-stage draw in Marseille , and again in the Velodrome Stadium itself, surprised French police geared up against terror threats but not street fighting. Almost all of the 35 people injured, one critically, in the street battles were British. England fans itching for a rematch with Russian hooligans that thankfully didnt materialize disgraced themselves the following week with drunken, loutish behavior up north in Lille, met by sprays of police tear gas and several dozen arrests. And a 2-2 draw between Czech Republic and Croatia was interrupted when flares were thrown onto the pitch and Croatia fans fought among themselves.---NO KIDSA sourpuss UEFA edict against players having their children join them on the pitch for post-match celebrations was a kill-joy low. UEFA said it was concerned for small kids safety and that the European Championship is not a family party. White Ducks Jerseys. A high was the kids of Wales players running on the field at the Parc des Princes in Paris after their dads beat Northern Ireland 1-0 in the round of 16, being cheered on by Wales fans as they shot at goal with their little legs.---BORINGThose heartwarming scenes were the only redeeming feature of an otherwise teeth-grindingly dull match, of which there were more than a few. The increased total of 51 games, from 31 in the previous 16-team format, always threatened a greater likelihood of duds, as weaker squads with plenty of heart but lacking the skills to progress deep into the tournament opted for defense in numbers and hoped for goals from counterattacks. Even star-studded teams were only moderately more interesting than drying paint at times. In advancing to the quarterfinals, Ronaldos Portugal had just two attempts on target in 120 minutes against Luka Modrics Croatia, which managed none. A yawn-filled low.---THRILLING ITALYNot a contradiction in terms, thanks to Chelseas new coach Antonio Conte, who squeezed every ounce of quality out of an Italian team that ended the eight-year reign of 2008 and 2012 champions Spain with mesmerizing attacking gusto crafted onto the 3-5-2 solidity of a Juventus back-three and evergreen 38-year-old `keeper Gianluigi Buffon. Contes only foot wrong was bringing on Simone Zaza in the last minute of extra time for a penalty shoot-out against Germany in the quarterfinals. With a prancing horse run-up that made him the butt of online jokes , Zaza was one of four Italy players who failed to convert in the 6-5 penalty win for the world champions.Other 90 minutes well spent were Wales 3-1 quarterfinal victory over Belgium, lit up by Hal Robson-Kanus hip-shimmy turn and goal that put the Welsh ahead; Germanys flowing 3-0 dismantlement of Slovakia in the round of 16; and, for its wow factor, Iceland beating England -- a high for underdog-loving neutrals but not for England coach Roy Hodgson, who immediately threw in the towel.---HUH!The Icelandic cry will echo in memories long after the tournament, as will the symbiotic relationship, full of mutual adoration, that players and fans from the island of 330,000 people built during their adventure of a lifetime to the quarterfinals. The fans haunting rendition of their song Ferdalok (Sun shimmers in the water, see the glacier glow ...) during the teams honorable 5-2 loss to France was the spine-tingling high of a tournament that lacked an abundance of earth-shattering football but not entertaining moments.---John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/johnleicester Cheap NFL JerseysCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaCheap Jerseys From ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys AuthenticWholesale Jerseys ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaNFL Cheap Jerseys ' ' '
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