The Minnesota Twins came up short on Sunday at Fenway Park, as the Boston Red Sox narrowly avoided a four-game sweep with a 6-4 victory.
Twins starter Nick Blackburn scattered nine hits over five innings to take his sixth loss of the season, while Boston pitcher Franklin Morales, who made just his eighth start of 2012, went six strong innings to move to 3-2 on the season.
Although Minnesota could only muster six hits on the day, a first inning single from Ben Revere extended the speedy outfielder's hitting streak to 19 games. Revere now has nine hits and three steals through five games in the month of August, and remains the single hottest player in manager Ron Gardenhire's lineup. In addition to his stellar offense as of late though, the 24-year-old continues to make tremendous plays in the field, as evidenced by his Willie Mays-esque grab to save a run in the seventh inning (click to animate, via @cjzero):
With late-game comebacks being the norm throughout this entire series, the Twins kept things consistent in the ninth once again by tattooing Boston pitcher Vicente Padilla for three runs on a pair of blasts to the outfield. The first, a solo shot from the bat of Josh Willingham, came on Padilla's very first batter faced, while the second, a two-run shot from Ryan Doumit, came two batters later. Though Boston closer Alfredo Aceves was brought in to quell the storm for his 23rd save, it's clear that Twins hitters are playing as well as they have all season at the moment.
Fresh off this momentum-building series victory, the Twins should have all the confidence in the world heading to Cleveland for a three-game set with an ice cold Indians squad. Ace (too early?) Scott Diamond will get the ball for the Twins in game one as he looks to reach double-digit victories.
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