All that good feeling from Sunday's win over Chicago evaporated on Monday, as the Indians pounded out 20 hits against a parade of Twins pitchers on their way to a 10-4 win at Target Field.
Scott Baker gave up ten of those hits and six of those runs, departed after two were out in the fifth, and generally stunk up the joint. The guys who came after weren't much better, especially Jon Rauch, who gave up four hits and two runs in his inning of work and generally looked like a man who's about to be done being the closer.
The lone bright spot for the Twins was probably a massive Jim Thome home run in the sixth, a shot that cleared the right-field bleachers and bounced onto the plaza, but otherwise Minnesota left thirteen men on base and in general did not have a particularly excellent night at the dish. Not that an excellent night would have mattered that much, as the Indians pounded hit after hit off the Twins pitching staff.
Give Cleveland some credit, here; they've won five straight coming out of the All-Star break, all against division opponents, and they're threatening to climb out of the cellar. We can talk about the putrid state of Twins pitching all we like, but the Indians hitters deserve their due. Their star on the night was left fielder Trevor Crowe, who went 4-5 with a double, scored two runs, and knocked in two more.
I would point out that Cleveland came into the game batting just .246 as a team, third-last in the American League, but that would just depress you, wouldn't it?
Also, the game took four hours to finish. Allow me to close by commending the few hardy souls who stuck out the game until the end in the Target Field stands. You folks are true fans. Or had nothing you had to get up for on Tuesday, I guess.
As for the studs and duds, let's just call everybody a dud and move on to tomorrow.
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