Joe Mauer had been slumping (only by his standards) the past couple weeks, but he busted loose for 4 hits in Monday night's series opener against the Dodgers. Joe Mauer's 5 RBI led the Twins to an 8-2 victory setting up a pretty good opportunity for a series sweep with Liriano and Santana taking the mound for the next two games. The 5 RBI were a career high for Mauer and the 4-5 night pushed his batting average up to .377.

Joe's first hit came in the first with an RBI single that scored Luis Castillo. Justing Morneau was then walked to load the bases and Torii Hunter grounded into an inning-ending double play, preventing what could've been a damaging inning for the Dodgers. The Twins offense came back with 3 runs in the 2nd inning—largely provided by Mauer's 2-run triple to the left field corner.

Mauer came to the plate in the 6th inning with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd. The Dodgers brought in hard throwing lefty Hong-Chih Kuo to face Mauer, but it didn't matter. Mauer singled to score Castillo and move Punto to 2nd. Michael Cuddyer followed that up with an RBI single of his own. Mauer capped off his night in the 8th with an RBI ground-rule double. Cuddyer again followed up with an RBI single to add the Twins eighth run of the night.

Detroit beat Houston 10-4 and the White Sox were off. The Twins remain 11 games behind Detroit, but moved a half game closer to Chicago and now sit 9 games behind them. The Twins have now won 15 of their last 17 games

Finally, I don't want to let Mauer's great night completely overshadow a good outing from Carlos Silva. Silva, who left his last two games early, went 8 innings and gave up just 2 runs —none after the 3rd. Silva gave up just 2 hits in the 4th through 8th innings and in total allowed just 6 hits and no walks. His ERA is still at an ugly 6.43, but it's quickly moving in the right direction. Silva still had only 6 ground outs compared to 15 fly outs and there were a few balls that were hit to pretty deep parts of the outfield, so something still isn't completely right.

Game Notes

• Michael Cuddyer picked up 2 hits and 2 walks and drove in 2 RBI while batting in the cleanup spot behind Mauer.
• Luis Castillo scored each time he was on the basepaths for 4 runs.
• Nick Punto batted second and was 2-3 with 2 walks. He continues to bother me with his head-first slides into first, but I have to admit his firey style of play is fun to watch.
• Hunter had a bad game. He was 0-2 including the bases loaded GIDP in the first. He walked twice, but one of those times he was thrown out stealing second. In all he created 4 outs in the game.
• Jason Kubel was the only Twin to not reach base in the game. Jason Bartlett was 0-3, but was hit by a pitch in the 2nd inning.
• LA shot themselves in the foot with 8 walks and a hit batter. The Twins did a good job of taking advantage of most of the free passes they were given.