CHICAGO: Dane Dunning pitched seven effective innings, Luis Robert had a key two-run single and the Chicago White Sox strengthened their hold on the AL Central by topping the Minnesota Twins 6-2 on Tuesday night.

Dunning (2-0) permitted one earned run and three hits in by far the biggest of his five major league starts. Looking poised and confident, the 25-year-old right-hander struck out seven and walked two in the longest outing of his career.

Tim Anderson and James McCann homered as Chicago (32-16) posted its sixth straight win and moved three games ahead of second-place Minnesota, which won the AL Central last year. The AL-best White Sox also moved 16 games over .500 for the first time since they were 71-55 on Aug. 26, 2012.

Byron Buxton hit his third career inside-the-park homer for Minnesota, but the Twins finished with just four hits. Randy Dobnak (6-4) allowed four runs and eight hits over 4 1/3 innings in his second straight loss.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli and designated hitter Nelson Cruz were ejected by plate umpire Will Little after Ryan Jeffers took a called third strike for the final out of the seventh. It was third career ejection for both.

Buxton showed off his breathtaking speed in the third, tying it at 1 when he raced around the bases for his ninth homer. Buxton’s drive to deep center caromed off the wall after Robert tried to make a leaping catch, and Buxton scored easily with a stylish headfirst slide.

Buxton and the Twins thought he had an inside-the-park homer in the ninth inning of Monday’s 3-1 loss, but it was changed to a ground-rule double after a replay review led to a ruling that his liner to left was lodged at the bottom of the wall.

This time, Buxton got to keep his first inside-the-park homer since Aug. 18, 2017. But the White Sox went ahead to stay with three runs in the bottom of the third.

McCann hit a tiebreaking double, and Robert followed with a liner back up the middle against a drawn-in infield. McCann and Jos Abreu scored to give Chicago a 4-1 lead.

After Buxton singled and scored on Jeffers’ groundout in the fifth, Chicago responded with solo homers by Anderson in the sixth and McCann in the seventh.

Anderson had three hits and scored twice, and Abreu also finished with three hits. Anderson and Abreu are both strong contenders for the AL MVP award.

WELCOME TO THE BIGS

Travis Blankenhorn started at second base for the Twins in his major league debut. He doubled in the ninth for his first career hit.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Twins: INF Marwin Gonzalez rested a day after he was scratched due to an illness. Baldelli said Gonzalez was feeling much better. I don’t think he’s going to miss very much time, Baldelli said. … INF Miguel San (neck stiffness) and OF Eddie Rosario (left elbow) returned to the starting lineup.

White Sox: LHP Jace Fry threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings after he was reinstated from the 10-day injured list. He had been sidelined by back spasms. I got a shot in my back to help out and after that kind of set in, we took it slower, Fry said. I think I could have been back a few days ago. But they were being pretty safe with it and making sure I felt good before I got back on the mound. LHP Bernardo Flores Jr. was optioned to the team’s alternate training site to make room on the roster.

UP NEXT

Lucas Giolito (4-2, 3.43 ERA) pitches for Chicago on Wednesday night. The right-hander is 1-0 with a 4.32 ERA in three starts since he threw a no-hitter against Pittsburgh on Aug. 25. The Twins did not announce a starter before Tuesday’s game.

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Jay Cohen can be reached at https://twitter.com/jcohenap

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MILWAUKEE: Christian Yelich broke out of his slump with a home run and three hits, Ryan Braun also went deep and the Milwaukee Brewers romped to an 18-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Keston Hiura and Daniel Vogelbach also homered for the Brewers.

Well after the game was out of hand, both managers were ejected following a catcher’s interference call on Yadier Molina that led to a tense confrontation in front of the Brewers’ dugout.

Milwaukee jumped on St. Louis early, a night after the teams combined for only eight runs in splitting a doubleheader in which both games went to extra innings.

With St. Louis leading 1-0 in the first, Yelich and Braun hit back-to-back solo home runs off Jack Flaherty (3-2). Neither was hit particularly hard. And Flaherty, who had allowed two runs or fewer in five of his six previous starts, showed some dominance, as six of the first seven outs he recorded were strikeouts.

But Yelich, who singled, and Braun, who walked, hurt Flaherty again in the third inning. They scored on a double by Vogelbach, a designated hitter claimed off waivers Sept. 3.

The game broke loose in the fourth, after Flaherty gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases. There were still no outs when three runs crossed the plate, giving Milwaukee a 7-1 lead, and Flaherty was pulled.

Jake Woodford came on and gave up a three-run homer to Hiura that put Milwaukee up 11-1. The solo shot by Vogelbach came in the seventh, off Nabil Crismatt.

Cardinals pitchers entered Tuesday having given up the fewest home runs in the National League.

Milwaukee left-hander Brett Anderson (3-3), scratched from his last scheduled start on Sept. 12 because of a tight right hip, pitched five innings. He gave up an RBI double and a bases-loaded walk, both to Paul Goldschmidt.

Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell acknowledged before the game that he considered resting Yelich, who went 3 for 4 with two singles. Before the homer, the 2018 NL MVP had seen his average dip below .200, as he went 1 for 18 with 12 strikeouts over his last five games.

Obviously its been a struggle up there, to say the least,” Yelich said. “Its baseball. Youre going to go through it. Its going to happen. Sometimes theres no explaining it. Its how the game works.

Counsell and Cardinals manager Mike Shildt were ejected in the fifth, with Milwaukee leading 13-2, after Braun was awarded first base on the interference call. Shildt examined Molinas left arm, then he and Molina approached the Milwaukee dugout and exchanged words with Brewers players. Players from both teams dugouts and bullpens massed in front of the Milwaukee dugout, but that was the extent of it.

INTERFERENCE CALL

Shildt said he didnt blame Braun, but was upset because it was only the second time in Molinas career that Molina has been called for interference. I go to check on him and make sure hes OK and hear something out of the (Brewers) dugout,” Shildt said. We dont start things, but were not going to take it. Heard something I didnt appreciate. I will always have our players backs.”

Said Counsell: Apparently there was a little miscommunication between (Shildt) and our dugout, him and me, I should say, him and me.

SIGNIFICANT CHANGE

With no off days during the first three rounds of the playoffs, under the schedule announced Tuesday, Counsell said that I understand thats how we have to do it, but that is a significant change in the rules for the postseason, a very significant change in the rules for postseason. It affects how your rosters made up, without a doubt, and it will affect, definitely, pitching strategy not so much the first round, but after the first round.

Shildt said of the quarantining required by the playoff schedule: Im a take it as it comes kind of person. It is what it is. Everyones having to do it. I think if you keep the mental edge and know that thats the situation, you make the best of it.

TRAINERS ROOM

Cardinals: RHP Johan Oviedo was expected to rejoin the team Tuesday evening and is expected to start the second game of Wednesdays doubleheader, Shildt said. Oviedo was put on the injured list Sept. 10 after he came into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. … 2B Kolten Wong was scratched from the lineup with discomfort on his left side. He was replaced by Tommy Edman.

UP NEXT

A full slate of pitchers for Wednesday had not been announced. St. Louis RHP Adam Wainwright (4-1, 2.91 ERA) will start the first game of the doubleheader. The 39-year-old has pitched six or more innings, including a complete game, in each of his last five starts. RHP Brandon Woodruff (2-3, 3.40) will start one of the games for Milwaukee.

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LONDON: Murray Pulman says he is as tough as they come, but battles with his insurer have left him close to tears after a coronavirus lockdown forced his family-run cafe The Posh Partridge to close.

Pulman was counting himself as one of the lucky ones on Tuesday, however, after a judgment in a London test case against eight insurance firms, including his insurer QBE , held up the promise of a payout on his business interruption policy.

He is among hundreds of thousands of mainly small British businesses now waiting to hear if their insurer will pay out imminently, or keep them hanging while they appeal.

“This has had me close to the edge,” Pulman told Reuters by telephone from Dorchester, southwest England, where the cafe reopened on July 4 after its closure in late March.

QBE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The cafe, which the 56-year-old started with his 29-year-old daughter Emily four years ago, now runs at half speed to allow social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“I will be paid one day … (but) I expect them to run me ragged having to prove this and prove that, prove the other,” he said.

The Posh Partridge was profitable from the start, says Pulman, who paid QBE around 1,350 pounds a year for a business interruption insurance policy for the business.

The terms of the QBE policy said it would pay out if the premises were closed by a local authority as a result of an outbreak of a contagious human disease within a 25 mile (40 km)radius.

But when the coronavirus pandemic hit and the cafe was forced to close, QBE told him he had no valid claim.

The High Court judgment means Pulman could qualify for a payout, pending any appeal, although he will likely remain reliant on volatile takings, which on one day fell as low as 22 pounds ($28), as long as the coronavirus pandemic persists.

“The insurer utterly abandoned us and sought to mitigate their losses to zero,” he said.

“This judgment will not make that go away.”

DENTAL WORK

Dentist Laith Abbas also got an abrupt no from QBE when he tried to claim as the government-imposed lockdown in March closed his North London surgery.

When he found his policy didn’t pay out, he led a campaigning group of 2,000 dental practices with business interruption policies to seek redress.

Abbas said Tuesday’s judgment had given its members hope.

“A lot of dentists have suffered in lockdown, and there’s no light in the tunnel with a potential second wave,” he added.

“Business interruption insurance is potentially the only thing that can keep dental practices afloat.”

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