Diamond, Offense Dominate as Twins Win 11-0

On a night when the Twins offense made Earl Weaver proud, the story of the game was this: Scott Diamond threw a 3-hit, complete game shutout on 98 pitches, and the Twins crushed the Indians, 11-0.

It's easy to overstate a solid pitching performance in a season when they've been in such short supply, but Diamond was masterful. In addition to the numbers above: 6 strikeouts, zero walks. It was the best pitching performance of 2012 by a Twins starter, which isn't damning with faint praise, even if it sounds like it.

You may recall that Earl Weaver eschewed small ball and endorsed the offensive strategy of doubles and 3-run home runs. The Twins embraced this early, with HOT TRADE RUMOR subject Justin Morneau putting a 3-run dong into the Thome section of the plaza in the bottom of the first.

The Twins kept putting runners on against Cleveland starter Josh Tomlin, and broke the game wide open with a 2-out rally in the 4th inning. After RBI singles by Ben Revere and Joe Mauer, HOT TRADE RUMOR subject Josh Willingham belted his own 3-run dinger into the bullpen to put the Twins up 8-0 and the game out of reach.

Ultra mega super stud: Diamond

Other studs: take a deep breath, Stu. Okay: Morneau and Willingham as already noted (Willingham added a 4th RBI just to show off). Mauer (3-5, average at .332). HOT TRADE RUMOR subject Denard Span (2-3, 2 walks, stolen base. Brian Dozier, who made some very nice plays in the field. Ryan Doumit (2-4, 1 RBI).

Duds: all of Cleveland. They're still in the playoff hunt, and getting creamed by a bad team doesn't help that.

That was a fun game. More like this, please. Enjoy your weekend everybody.