"Obviously, every day we're just going out and trying to compete," Arcia said through a translator. "We competed the whole series and looking forward to carrying this one over."

On Thursday, it was the White Sox who couldn't finish.

Trailing 9-8 heading into the ninth after Marcus Semien homered in the bottom of the eighth off Caleb Thielbar (1-0), the Twins scored twice off Chicago closer Matt Lindstrom (0-1), who blew his first save chance in two opportunities. Trevor Plouffe singled with two outs in the ninth to tie the game before Arcia's triple off the wall in center gave Minnesota a 10-9 lead.

Arcia had been 0-for-13, but his empty start ended at the best time for Minnesota.

Colabello's three-run double in the third gave Minnesota a 3-1 edge, and his fifth-inning double off Jose Quintana gave the Twins a 5-1 lead. He also had an RBI groundout in the seventh to complete a career game when the raw conditions (37 degrees at game time) were challenging.

"Obviously, I had to have guys on base in front of me," Colabello said. "Just tried to have good at-bats."

What Colabello and Arcia did helped the Twins win in starter Phil Hughes' debut.

Signed by the Twins to a three-year, $24 million contract after seven years with the Yankees, he lasted five innings in his debut and allowed four runs, seven hits and two home runs while striking out seven.

Over his last two seasons with the Yankees, Hughes gave up 59 home runs. The two he allowed Thursday were to Alejandro De Aza and Adam Dunn, but he left with a 5-4 lead.

Jose Abreu, signed to a six-year, $68 million contract, helped erase that lead. He went 2-for-4 with a double, a triple and four RBIs. His fifth-inning double cut the Twins' lead to 5-2, and then his bases-loaded triple against Anthony Swarzak gave the White Sox an 8-5 edge in the sixth.

De Aza's home run was his third of the season, and Dunn's tied Dave Kingman for 38th all-time with 442, while Tyler Flowers had a career-high four hits.

That put Quintana in position for his first win of the year after he went six innings and allowed five runs -- two earned.

"He pitched fine," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "I think he had a couple innings there where it got away on him, but other than that, he gave us what we needed."

He got that no-decision when Josmil Pinto homered in the eighth off Ronald Belisario, and the White Sox lost in the ninth when Lindstrom allowed two runs.

"We put up some runs on the board," Lindstrom said. "We came back when we were down, guys putting together great at-bats, playing good defense, so it feels bad kind of letting the team down in that sense."

Game notes
The Twins reinstated LHP Brian Duensing from the paternity leave list before the game. RHP Michael Tonkin was optioned to Triple-A Rochester. ... Gardenhire said the Twins would try to avoid using RHP Casey Fien after Fien sustained a left ankle bruise Wednesday. ... Ventura joked that delays for instant replays are annoying "if they go against us" before saying, "That's part of it, and we're going to have to deal with it." ... The White Sox went 26-50 against the American League Central last season, and Ventura stressed that the White Sox must improve against the division. "You got some people that made the playoffs probably because of our won and loss record," he said. ... Twins RHP Mike Pelfrey will face Indians RHP Danny Salazar on Friday in Cleveland. ... RHP Erik Johnson is scheduled to start Friday for the White Sox in Kansas City against RHP Jeremy Guthrie.