The Minnesota Twins beat up on the struggling Chicago White Sox 13-2 Monday night at Target Field.
Two five run innings and a strong start by Tommy Milone (4-1) was enough for Minnesota to run away with the series opener. Milone gave up two runs on 10 hits in six innings of work, while walking and striking out two for the victory.
But he had plenty of help from the Twins bats as Joe Mauer, Eduardo Nunez, Kennys Vargas and Brian Dozier all homered in the game.
Vargas had a big night, he was 4-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs scored. Nunez also 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored and Dozier was 2-for-5 with three RBIs.
The Twins are averaging 6.36 runs/gm vs. CWS thru 11 games this season. They've scored 3.78 runs/gm in 59 vs. all others. #math
— Jamie Hersch (@JamieHersch) June 23, 2015
Byron Buxton got the Twins offense running right away. He led off the game with a double, then scored moments later on a single by Brian Dozier to put the Twins up 1-0.
That was the first of three hits in the game for Buxton – his first multi-hit game in the majors.
The White Sox answered back in the top of the third with a two-run single from Adam LaRoche. But the very next hitter Alexi Ramirez singled to center and Buxton had an opportunity to show off his arm strength.
https://twitter.com/TheCauldron/status/613150555473510402
The Twins reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning by scoring five, highlighted by home runs from Mauer and Nunez to take a 6-2 lead.
Eduardo Nunez has 23 hits this year and 13 have gone for extra bases. He has a .532 slugging percentage.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) June 23, 2015
If that wasn’t enough, Minnesota piled on five more in the sixth inning highlighted by Vargas’ impressive blast. Then for good measure they added two more on Dozier’s homer in the eighth.
Mike Pelfrey (5-3) is on the mound Tuesday night for Minnesota against Chicago’s Jeff Samardzija.
