In what will no doubt go down as one of the most lopsided baseball games of the summer, the Minnesota Twins completely destroyed the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Monday night in a 19-7 victory at Target Field.
In addition to smacking 20 hits against Orioles pitchers and producing runs in six of the eight half innings they played, the Twins also sent every last one of their nine starters across the plate at least once. More amazing is that as many as seven of those nine men scored twice, and three of them actually scored three times apiece. If only Ron Gardenhire could find a way to get his team to play like this every night.
Even after jumping out to a massive 7-0 lead after a wild first inning, Minnesota hitters never once appeared uncomfortable at the plate against Baltimore's revolving-door of relief pitchers. Leadoff hitter Denard Span finished 3-for-5 with five runs batted in, while his partner in crime atop the order Ben Revere chipped in a 4-for-6 night with three runs knocked in of his own. Not to be outdone, first baseman Justin Morneau finished 4-for-5 from the dish with three runs scored, helping to make a performance like his teammate Trevor Plouffe's, a 2-for-4 night where he extended his hitting streak to 14 games, feel a whole lot more obsolete than it should.
Looking to see some spillover from their ridiculous Monday performance in Tuesday's game two, the Twins will send Samuel Deduno to the hill to face Baltimore's Zach Britton.
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