Ryan Doumit continued his hot streak by knocking in the winning run in the 11th and Joe Mauer hit his 100th career home run as Minnesota outlasted Washington Saturday afternoon at National Park, 4-3.
Glenn Perkins shut down the Nats in the bottom of the 11th, earning his 13th save this season.
The Twins have been stultified at the plate of late with runners in scoring position, but Doumit has been the lone engine of the offense. He has hit in 10 of his last 11 games, and has 16 RBI in that period.
While Doumit went 2-4, Mauer collected three hits for the Twins, including a go-ahead homer in the 5th inning, and also drew an intentional walk in the top of the 11th.
Former Twin Denard Span also had a good day at the plate, going 3-5 against his old ball club, according to the Sports Network.
Twins starter Kevin Correia continued a staff-wide inability to pitch seven complete innings — forget a complete game — giving up eight hits and three runs in 6 1/3 innings. Still, it was enough for the Twins bullpen with Brian Duensing, Casey Fien, Jared Burton and Josh Roenicke pitching relief.
Jayson Werth opened the scoring in the 3rd inning with a two-run homer that also scored Span to put the Nats up 2-0. The Twins tied it up with an error and an RBI single by Brian Dozier, knocking in Justin Morneau, in the 4th inning.
Then Mauer, who also had a single and a double, hit a solo home run in the 5th inning to put the Twins up 3-2. Washington tied it up when Kurt Suzuki double to left center scored Anthony Rendon with one out in the seventh.
Eventually that led to the Twins putting runners on board and around the bases in the top of the 11th inning. That set the stage for Doumit’s single to center, scoring Chris Herrmann and putting the Twins up for good. Herrmaan, playing left field, also caught a fly ball off Perkins for the game’s final out.
So the Twins go up 1-0 in the three-game series. Because of rain Friday, Sunday’s close of the series will see the teams play two at National Park.
