The Twins broke out of their recent offensive slump in a big way, perhaps riding last night’s extra innings victory to an 11-4 thrashing of the Texas Rangers. What makes the outburst so significant is due to two things; the fact that every one was involved in the scoring and the 11 runs were scored without any home runs.
The scoring started right in the 1st inning. Carlos Gomez showed off his speed by hitting a triple to start things off. He would then be driven in by an Alexi Casilla single and the team would add one more run in the inning. The big inning for the Twins was the 3rd, where they scored 7 runs and every hitter in that inning reached base. The Twins started with 4 consecutive hits, including an RBI single by Justin Morneau followed by an RBI double by Michael Cuddyer. The other runs would be scored on 2 groundouts, a single, a bases loaded walk and a sacrifice fly. The team added 2 more runs in the 7th on a Delmon Young triple and a Mike Lamb sac fly.
Starter Glen Perkins turned in another solid start. Like some Twins starters lately, he flew through the early parts, but ran into trouble later. In the 7th, he gave up 3 runs, 2 of which were earned, before exiting with only one out in the inning. Brian Bass came in and pitched 2 2/3 innings of one run relief, something that was needed after the extensive work te bullpen got last night.
The Twins were able to transfer the emotion and energy of last night’s dramatic win into a ton of runs tonight. Just as important, they were able to break out of their slump of the last two series. The fact that they did this all without a single home run goes to show how good the Twins are; they don’t need a masher to homer every night to win games, they can do it by getting on base, moving runners over and the bringing them home. The team can keep the momentum going tomorrow when try for the series victory.
