The Twins managed a 2-1 series victory over the Cleveland Indians with a blowout 11-3 victory on Thursday afternoon.

The most encouraging aspect of the victory was Scott Baker's performance. While he's certainly had some good starts through the season, he's had more poor ones. On Thursday he managed to hold a decent Cleveland offense to just 2 runs over 7 innings while striking out a career-high 10 batters. He walked just 1 and allowed scattered 6 hits.

Offensively it was the same old story--lots of production from the top half of the lineup, and little to nothing from the bottom half.

Denard Span was 1-4 with a walk and a home run.

Joe Mauer was 3-4 with a walk. He scored all 4 times he reached base. He's now batting .436 with an otherwordly .519 on-base percentage.

Justin Morneau was 3-3 with 2 walks and his 15th home run of the season. He drove in 3 RBI to bring his season total to 50.

Jason Kubel did the bulk of the damage with 2 3-run home runs in the game. He had a single and a walk as well. Kubel also played RF in Cuddyer's absence, marking the first time he's played the position this year.

Michael Cuddyer missed his 3rd straight game with the sore finger, but is reportedly making positive progress. He's expected to take batting practice before the game today, and should be back in the lineup this weekend.

The bottom 5 in the Twins lineup had just 3 hits and NO walks in 17 at-bats compared to the top 4 who had 10 hits and 5 walks in 15 at-bats. That kind of contrast has been quite evident all season with the top 4 all having career years.

Weekend in Seattle

The Twins will start a West Coast stretch with a series in Seattle. Francisco Liriano will face Felix Hernandez for the third time this season. The Twins were beat handily by Felix on April 6th, but managed to tag him for 6 runs through 4 innings on May 9th for a victory.

The game is a big one for Liriano, who has turned in 3 straight 4-inning starts, and has a 6.60 ERA and 2-7 record for the season. He's looked good at times, but always seems to break down suddenly, as he did in the 3rd inning against Tampa Bay on Saturday. Liriano actually leads Twins starters in strikeouts with 50, but unfortunately also leads in walks with 28 allowed.