The Minnesota Twins lost their third consecutive game on Sunday afternoon at Chase Field, as the Arizona Diamondbacks walked away with a 3-2 victory to extend their winning streak to six games.
The Diamondbacks drew first blood in this one, as they put up two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. The first one came on Juan Miranda's solo home run off of Francisco Liriano with one out, and they added another courtesy of an RBI single by Arizona pitcher Daniel Hudson.
Not to be outdone, Liriano got an RBI of his own in the top of the fifth, bringing Delmon Young in to score on a ground out to second base to cut Arizona's lead to 2-1. Young then tied things up for the Twins in the top of the seventh, when he led off the inning with a solo home run. . .his first of the 2011 season. . .to knot the score at two apiece.
Alex Burnett came in to relieve Liriano prior to the bottom of the seventh inning, and immediately gave up a double to Willie Bloomquist. Bloomquist advanced to third on Ben Revere's error, and came home to score on Ryan Roberts' sacrifice fly. The Twins never really threatened after that, as they got just one hit in the eighth off of Hudson, and J.J. Putz set them down in order in the ninth for his twelfth save of the season.
Hudson got the win for Arizona after pitching eight strong innings and allowing the Twins only eight hits and two runs while striking out six. Alex Burnett took the loss for Minnesota, dropping his record on the season to 0-3. Liriano did not figure into the decision after one of his typical up-and-down starts. The left-hander allowed two runs on six hits to the Diamondbacks, but walked four batters to go along with four strikeouts.
No rest for the Twins, as they'll hop on a flight back to Minneapolis in order to host the Seattle Mariners on Monday night at Target Field, with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 PM Central time. As it stands now, the pitching match-up is being advertised as left-hander Jason Vargas (3-2, 3.39 ERA) taking the hill for Seattle, and the Twins countering with righty Carl Pavano (2-4, 5.30 ERA).