Game 42: Twins destroy Sox in 20-1 win to snap losing streak
Minnesota @ Chicago (Game 3 of 3)
After a lackluster road trip, the Twins seemed to have taken out their aggressions on the Chicago White Sox to snap a six game losing streak in a 20-1 victory at U.S. Cellular Field.
The Twins started out small in the first inning and put up a single run on an RBI single from Jason Kubel that scored Joe Mauer. The team blew the gates open in the second, though, and put up seven to take an 8-0 lead before the White Sox even had a chance to bat around their lineup.
Nick Punto put in the first run of the second inning with a sacrifice bunt that scored Jose Morales but a throwing error would lead to all runners being safe. Joe Mauer would knock in a run with a sacrifice fly for the second run and second out of the inning, but the Twins were just getting started. After an intentional walk to Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel singled to knock in the third run which was followed by back-to-back home runs from Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede to finish the seven run inning.
Joe Mauer and Jose Morales knocked in a run in the third and fourth innings to give the Twins a double digit lead over the White Sox. The bats would fall silent in the fifth but come back with a boom in the sixth as the Twins put another six runs on the board. Matt Tolbert singled in Kubel for the first run and Nick Punto followed with a grounder that scored Cuddyer. With two out, Jimmy Gobel would load the bases by hitting Denard Span with a pitch and then serving up a grand slam to Joe Mauer to extend the Twins’ lead to 16-0, but the Twins were not done scoring yet.
Carlos Gomez scored in the seventh inning on a ground out by Crede. Later in the inning with two on and one out, Tolbert hit his first career home run to put a 20 on the board for the Twins.
Although the Twins had a shutout going into the eighth inning, Nick Blackburn was removed from the game after throwing only 82 pitches. Blackburn gave up only four hits over seven complete innings and struck out two while walking three. Joe Mijares replaced Blackburn in the eighth and gave up the lone run to the White Sox on a Carlos Quentin single that scored Brian Anderson with two out.
Joe Nathan pitched in the ninth to close out the lopsided game in the non-save situation.
Attendance: 23,048 (U.S. Cellular Field)
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