Sox Pitcher Almost Perfect Versus Twins

White Sox rookie Zach Stewart took a perfect game into the eighth inning and finished with a one-hitter as Chicago completed a doubleheader sweep of the Minnesota Twins with a 4-0 victory on Monday night.

The Twins were 21 up and 21 down against Stewart until Danny Valencia's leadoff double in the eighth spoiled the right-hander's bid to become the 21st rookie in major league history to throw a no-hitter.

The White Sox won the afternoon game 2-1.

The 24-year-old Stewart (2-3), whose only previous major league win came at Target Field last month, struck out nine in the first complete game of his career.

This was only Stewart's fifth start for the White Sox -- and eighth of his career -- after being traded to Chicago by Toronto on July 27.

With black curly hair flowing out from under the back of his cap and an intense expression on his face, Stewart made up for a rough start against the Twins last week in Chicago. He gave up seven hits and six runs in 4 2-3 innings that time.

After their long-shot chance of chasing down division-leading Detroit was chewed up during a three-game sweep by the Tigers over the weekend -- by a combined score of 35-11 -- the White Sox were able to put the discouragement behind them and have some fun. That came at the expense of their chief rival, the American League Central champions of the last two years.

The third-place White Sox are eight games behind the Tigers. During their four-game slide, the starters posted a 12.50 ERA while failing to get past the fifth inning each time.

Humber (9-8) was making his first start since Aug. 18 when he was struck above the right eye by a line drive off the bat of Kosuke Fukudome. Despite no success with his curveball, he gave up six hits, struck out six and did not walk a batter. It was his first win since July 2.