Phil Hughes Dominates In Minnesota Twins Series Winner
Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Wednesday afternoon’s ballgame provided a ton of good storylines for the Minnesota Twins. Phil Hughes dominating, Joe Mauer looking like the good Joe Mauer, Kendrys Morales jumping in and making a huge impact and, of course, the Twins winning the series over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Phil Hughes went seven shutout innings in Toronto giving up seven hits, striking out nine and, as expected, walking none. Hughes looked phenomenal all game long and added greatly to his resume to make his second All-Star team. Hughes also made the midsummer classic in 2010.
Joe Mauer finally looked like Joe Mauer on Wednesday. We’ll have to see if this continues on, but it’s nice to see that it’s at least there, somewhere. Mauer went 3-for-4 with a walk and a run scored in the game, the good game from Mauer knocked his average up to .263.
Kendrys Morales has jumped right into the lineup and is showing no signs of rust. If there is rust, I’m excited to see what happens when it’s gone. Morales went 3-for-5 on Wednesday notching two doubles. Morales’ day was highlighted by a three-run double in the seventh inning for his first Twins RBI.
Josh Willingham should also be noted. He also went 3-for-5 with 3 RBI in the game. Willingham is now hitting .311 on the season.
Looking at the team as a whole, the Twins went into Toronto and won the series. Only the San Francisco Giants have more wins than the Toronto Blue Jays. The Twins will now roll into Detroit to face the Tigers with an opportunity to really close the gap in the American League Central. After the Twins game on Wednesday, the Twins were only 4 games out of first while being in the cellar of the Central.
The only bad news in the ballgame for the Twins is that All-Star hopeful Brian Dozier had to leave the game. In the early innings, Brian Dozier and Eduardo Nunez, playing shortstop, were going out into the outfield chasing a pop-up and collided. Dozier stayed in the game for a couple innings before being lifted. Dozier left with lower back tightness and is day-to-day.
A quick look at the scoring in the game: Josh Willingham hit a two-run homer in the first inning to open up the scoring and give Hughes an early lead. Trevor Plouffe hit a sac-fly in the sixth. Kendrys Morales hit the three-run double in the seventh to get the Twins a 6-0 lead. Toronto finally got on the board once Jared Burton entered the game via a Jose Bautista RBI double and a Dioner Navarro RBI single making the score 6-2. Twins added an insurance run in the ninth with a Josh Willingham RBI single finalizing the score at 7-2.
Casey Fien entered in the eighth and completed the game for his first career MLB save. Fien got the save because he entered with the tying run on the on-deck circle, I believe. The save is such a weird stat, but that’s a whole tangent.