White Sox starting pitcher and traditional Twins punching bag Gavin Floyd blanked the Twins offense today, allowing only five hits and no walks over 7 scoreless innings. He also struck out nine Twins batters. Including Joe Mauer. Twice. (I swear to god this actually happened.)

If you don't know why this is weird, consider the fact that Joe Mauer had reached base in fifteen straight plate appearances against Floyd before tonight's game. Yeah.

Liam Hendriks had a solid start, giving up just five hits and three earned runs over a season-high 6.1 innings. His only major error was a two-run homerun by Alex Rios in the 4th inning. Hendriks, however, had no offensive support.

The only time the Twins made a real offensive threat was in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, when they loaded the bases against Addison Reed with hot-hitting Jamey Caroll at the plate. Jamey mustered all the scrap in his being to produce a two-run pop-fly to right field--but then Denard Span promptly struck out grounded out (thanks Dazzle!) to end the game.

And that is the tale of how Gavin Floyd out-dueled the Twins offense and pitching for the first time since July 11th, 2009.

Studs and duds after the jump.

• Liam Hendricks: 5 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, and 3 earned runs over a season-high 6.1 innings pitched.
• Tyler Roberston: Newest Twin pitched a scoreless 8th inning, struck out all 3 batters he faced.