MINNEAPOLIS  — The Minnesota Twins have begun to put together a run of better starting pitching, with Scott Diamond leading the push.

Jake Peavy and the Chicago White Sox still got the better of them.

Peavy struck out eight over eight smooth innings, Alejandro De Aza hit the go-ahead infield single off Diamond’s leg in the eighth and the White Sox beat the Twins 3-2 on Wednesday.

Peavy (9-7) allowed five hits and walked two. One of the runs he gave up was unearned, due to a way-wide token pickoff throw to second base in the first inning that sailed into center field. The miscue let Ben Revere move to third, and he scored on Joe Mauer’s groundout.

Danny Valencia homered in the second, but Peavy toughened up after that and had trouble in only two more innings. Denard Span lined into a double play with a runner on third to end the fifth. Mauer popped out to finish the eighth with speedsters Span on third and Revere on first.

“We’ve been swinging good, but these guys have a good pitching staff,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Addison Reed pitched a shaky but scoreless ninth for his 18th save in 21 attempts, and the White Sox improved to 9-1 in their last 10 one-run games. Brian Dozier flied out to end it with runners on second and third.

“That’s a great lineup. People don’t give the Twins as much credit as they deserve over the last month,” Peavy said.