The Minnesota Twins avoided a winless home stand by defeating the Boston Red Sox 5-2 on Wednesday.
Twins starter Nick Blackburn, who hasn’t made it past the sixth inning in his last three starts, had a solid outing. Although he didn’t get the win, he went a strong 6.2 innings, giving up 6 hits and an unearned run.
The Twins jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first, as Jim Thome hit a two out single to score Joe Mauer, who drew a two out walk and went to third on a single by Michael Cuddyer.
After the Red Sox tied the score 2-2 in the top of the 8th on a David Ortiz home run, the Twins rallied for three runs in the bottom half to put the game out of reach. After Mauer walked, Thome smacked a double to left which scored Mauer. After Jason Repko came in to pich run for Thome, Danny Valencia doubled, scoring Repko.
The twins pushed a third run across when Tsuyoshi Nishioka hit a bases loaded single, scoring Valencia, but Delmon Young, who had been intentionally walked, was thrown out at home.
Joe Nathan pitched a 1-2-3 top of the ninth to pick up his ninth save.