Twins Beat Cleveland 10-3, Offense (Finally) Breaks Out

What a game.

The Twins really needed a game like this-a convincing, blow-out win against the 1st place Cleveland Indians at home. Aside from Dusty Hughes, the pitching was excellent, and the offense finally broke out and scored more than 5 runs. Pretty exciting stuff.

Notes and Studs & Duds after the jump.

Brian Duensing pitched an excellent game. The only run (and walk) he allowed came across in the 4th, but aside from that kind of rough half inning, Duensing was brilliant. He may not have struck out many batters (only 3), but he was effective and worked out of any jams he got himself in to. By the end of the 7th inning, Duensing had only thrown 90 pitches, and I (along with many other Twins fans, I'm sure) was hoping we'd see Brian back out for the 8th, but it was not to be. Instead, we saw a completely awesome inning from one Dusty Hughes...and by awesome, I mean not great at all. A walk issued to Jack Hannahan and home run from Grady "Coffee Cup" Sizemore, and suddenly the Indians were only losing 10-3. Hughes would finally get out of the inning, and with a very nice top of the 9th from Joe Nathan, the Twins notched their 8th win of the season.

The Indians just had a rough go of things today. They couldn't hit Duensing well, only getting 5 hits off him all day. Fausto Carmona had an even more difficult time, allowing 6 earned runs in only 5 innings. The bullpen didn't do much better, as Chad Durbin gave up 4 earned runs on 4 hits. Justin Germano gave up two hits, but didn't allow any earned runs, so I guess they have that going for them.

Like I said, this was a game the Twins really needed. Hopefully the streak of winning and scoring lots of runs continues. We need to catch up to the rest of the MLB.

Studs
-Brian Duensing. Because he was awesome and overshadowed by the offensive explosion.
-The Offense. You guys rule. Do it again.
-Joe Nathan. That was a pretty 9th inning. Wouldn't mind you doing that again, either.

Duds
-We could make a case for D. Hughes, but it was such a good game, let's not do that. Everyone wins!

Have a wonderful Easter tomorrow, and if you don't celebrate, Happy Sunday!