Minnesota Twins: Three Homers Set Tone in Win
It has been rough go of things for the Minnesota Twins but despite their struggles, they found some solid success against the Los Angeles Angels back in April, sweeping them in three games at Target Field.
So it should come as no surprise – or some surprise, depending on how you look at it – that the Minnesota Twins would have some nice success against the Angels on the road.
Using three home runs and three errors by the Angels (27-37), the Twins (20-43) improved to 4-0 against Los Angeles with a convincing 9-4 win on Monday.
Joe Mauer got things started with an RBI single to right that drove in Eduardo Nunez, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.
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After the Angels tied things up, the Twins got the lead back when Trevor Plouffe connected with a three-run blast to left field and gave them a 4-1 lead.
After pair of runs made it 4-3, Jered Weaver gave up another run on a double play by Plouffe in the fifth.
The Twins doubled their lead to 6-3 when Byron Buxton launched his first home run of the season to left field.
Minnesota Twins starter Ricky Nolasco clinched a quality start after forcing a double play off the bat of Gregorio Petit to get out of the inning.
Robbie Grossman got into the power mix with a solo shot in the seventh, giving the Minnesota Twins yet another three home run game.
It was their fourth three home-run game of the month and fifth multi-homer game of June.
The Twins really opened things up when they added two more runs in the inning off a fielder’s choice from Max Kepler and an RBI single by Kurt Suzuki, giving them a 9-3 lead.
4. 102. 9. 2. Final
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A. 10 hits, 4 walks, 6 strikeouts, 3 home runs. <a href=. . Robbie Grossman. OFFENSE
STARTERS . B+. Team totals: 6 innings, 7 hits allowed, 1 walk, 3 earned runs and 5 strikeouts. It wasn’t the most dominant start but when the offense is clicking it doesn’t need to be. Nolasco gave the Twins a quality start that was actually quite important as the bullpen was used a lot this past weekend against the Boston Red Sox. Aside from one bad inning, Nolasco held the Angels mostly in check, with the top-four hitters getting just one hit against him. It was the bottom of the order that haunted him and almost made the game closer than it needed to be until Nolasco got the Angels to ground into an inning-ending double play to get the Minnesota Twins out of the inning with a 6-3 lead.. . Ricky Nolasco
. Ryan Pressly. RELIEVERS . B+. Team totals: 3 innings, 1 hit allowed, 1 earned run, 0 walks, and 2 strikeouts. Welcome to the Minnesota Twins, <a href=
. DEFENSE . B. One error on a very mysterious play by <a href=.
MVT: Robbie Grossman
The Minnesota Twins will face the Angels on Tuesday night at 9:05 P.M. CST. Ervin Santana (1-6, 4.77) will pitch against his former team while the Angels will send Jhoulys Chacin 13-2, 4.42). Santana will go for his first victory in a month. His last win came against the Cleveland Indians. Since then he has lost every one of his starts.