Max Kepler returned from a concussion scare on Friday, entered the game as a pinch hitter and delivered the go-ahead run with a homer in the seventh inning of the Twins’ 6-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Asked if he ever had sympathy for a team that’s going through what the Sox are going through, the Twins right fielder said, “I don’t really know what they are going through, to be honest.”

When informed that the Twins had just handed Chicago its 19th straight loss, Kepler was taken a little aback.

“Well,” he said. “I’m happy I’m on this side of the stadium.”

Kepler’s solo home run off Touki Toussaint with two out in the seventh put the Twins up 3-2, and Minnesota broke it open with a three-run eighth that featured two walks and four singles as the Twins moved back to 13 games over .500 for the fifth time this season and moved alone into second place in the American League Central, 5½ games behind Cleveland.

Brooks Lee drove in two runs with a pair of two-out singles, Ryan Jeffers homered and Austin Martin went 2 for 3 with a triple and run scored.

“We never stop grinding at-bats, you know?” said Kepler, who hadn’t played since taking a throw to the helmet during an 8-3 victory over the Mets on Wednesday in New York. “It doesn’t matter who we are playing. It showed.”The White Sox twice rallied to erase one-run deficits, and the game was tight until the eighth, when five consecutive Twins batters reached base with two out to break open the game. Willi Castro finished a 13-pitch at bat against Toussaint (0-1) with a two-run single to make it 5-2.

“I heard (the crowd) getting really loud, so I was just thinking to myself, ‘I have to do something here. I don’t want to strike out,’ ” Castro said. “I think it’s just having a good approach there and making a good swing.”

Martin followed with a single that sent Castro to third, and knocked out Toussaint, and Lee followed with a single to right to score Castro and make it 6-2.

“That’s just what good teams do,” said Martin, a rookie utility man getting his real major league experience since being acquired from Toronto in the Jose Berrios trade. “We’re not a cookie cutter team, where everybody is expected, 1 through 9, to put the ball over the fence. We really utilize our talents and our gifts, and I commend a lot of the guys on the team for sticking to who they are best.

“Our lineup is just a mix of good hitters, but different types of hitters.”

The pitching was good, too. Bailey Ober started and threw seven innings, allowing two earned runs on two hits and two walks. He struck out seven. It was his 12th quality start this season, and eighth in a row. Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran each pitched a scoreless inning of relief.

“It feels good,” said Ober, who improved to 11-5 and lowered his earned-run average to 3.69. “Hopefully I can keep it going. Tomorrow I’m going to get ready for my next outing and I know I’m going to need to be a little bit better for my next. So that’s all I’m going to be focused on.”

That next start will be sometime this weekend against first-place Cleveland, which is here for a four-game weekend series starting with a double-header on Friday.

“I’m not trying to think too much of what’s been going on behind me,” Ober said. “Just take it day by day. And like I said, just get ready for the next outing.”

Jeffers gave the Twins a 1-0 lead in the second with a two-out home run into the corner of the left-field bleachers off of Sox starter Garrett Crochet. It was the only hit the left-hander gave up in four innings, although he walked four.

“We had to work had and Crochet is really tough,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I actually really liked the at-bats that we had off of him today. There were some times where we hit some balls hard. There were some other times where we laid off some pitches and made him keep throwing the ball in the zone. I was happy with that. But we didn’t break it open. There was no space there.

“So, we found the room late in the game by just having solid, solid plate appearances. It worked tonight.”

A crowd of 38,289, the second sellout at Target Field this season, got to watch a win and a bit of history as the Twins extended Chicago’s franchise-record losing streak to 19 games, matching the major leagues’ most recent epic skid — Baltimore’s in 2021.

The modern day record is Philadelphia Phillies’ 23-game losing streak in 1961. The American League record is Baltimore’s 21-game skid in 1988. Brooks Baldwin homered for the White Sox, who fell a franchise-worst 59 games under .500 and trail first-place Cleveland in the AL Central by 45½ games.