BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Twins Beat White Sox, Make a Little Headway

Despite winning seven of eight games, the Minnesota Twins haven’t put a dent in Oakland’s American League West lead.

However, on Thursday night, the Twins had another target in sight and were able to make a move on the Chicago White Sox by scoring a 3-2 victory at Chicago.

Minnesota, third in the West, remained 4 1/2 games behind the Athletics, but moved to within 1 1/2 games of the second-place White Sox.

Kirby Puckett and Gary Gaetti hit run-scoring doubles off rookie Jerry Kutzler (2-1) in the first inning. Minnesota made it 3-0 in the fourth on a throwing error by second baseman Scott Fletcher.

Mark Guthrie (2-0) gave up two runs on eight hits in five innings and Rick Aguilera pitched two perfect innings for his 14th save.

Oakland 6, Kansas City 4--Mark McGwire doubled, singled and drove in four runs at Kansas City as the A’s dropped the sixth-place Royals 12 games back by beating Tom Gordon (2-3).

Rickey Henderson homered, had three hits and stole a base for the A’s, and Dennis Eckersley got the last four outs for his 15th save.

The Royals fell behind, 5-0, before getting to Bob Welch (7-2) for three runs in the sixth--two on Bo Jackson’s inside-the-park homer.

San Diego 2, Atlanta 1--Pinch-hitter Fred Lynn’s run-scoring single capped a two-run seventh inning that carried the Padres past the Braves at San Diego for their fourth consecutive victory.

Lynn was batting for Dennis Rasmussen (5-2), who yielded six hits in seven innings.

Houston 5, San Francisco 3--Bill Doran’s run-scoring single broke a 2-2 tie and Craig Biggio added a two-run single to cap a four-run sixth as the Astros beat the Giants at San Francisco.

Earlier in the day, the Giants learned that outfielder Kevin Bass, who underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Wednesday, will be out for three months.