The Twins accomplished a great morale-boosting feat when they beat the Red Sox 7-3 to gain the 4 game series win. The game started off poorly, with Boston scoring 3 times in the top of the 1st, but the hitters were able to come back and the pitchers were able to stifle the Boston offense for the rest of the game.
Instead of bowing to the 3 Boston runs to start the game, the Twins roared right back, scoring twice in the bottom of the 1st off of Justin Morneau’s single that scored 2 and then scoring twice more in the 3rd to take the lead. To make sure they won, Craig Monroe, last night’s offensive catalyst, hit a 2 RBI double in the 5th, the only extra base hit for the Twins, and then later scored on a single by Delmon Young. Joe Mauer kept hitting and scored 3 runs.
Livan Hernandez had that rough 3 run top of the 1st, including giving up a 2 run homer to Manny Ramirez, but shut down the Red Sox the rest of his start to gain his 6th win of the season. He did do it a bit on the edge, inducing 13 fly ball outs. Juan Rincon and Jesse Crain combined for the final 3 scoreless innings.
This series win is nothing short of a season highlight. They were able to put large quantities of runs across against the World Series champs. Tonight’s win is particularly impressive since out of their 11 hits, Monroe had the only extra base one. They won with the style they are almost built for, getting on base, moving runners over and bringing them home. Having won 9 of their last 12, one can certainly say they’ve put their early season struggles behind them.
