Saturday afternoon’s game got off to an ugly start. Boof Bonser loaded the bases with a leadoff single by David DeJesus, a bunt single from Mark Grudzielanek and an infield single from Mike Sweeney. Bonser struck out Mark Teahan and Ross Gload for the first two outs of the inning, but then Luis Rodriguez, who was playing second had a pop fly bounce off his glove in shallow center field to allow 2 runs to score. Bonser then struck out Alex Gordon to end the inning.

Fortunately, the Twins had their bats working again on Saturday afternoon. The offense continued to put runs on the board as Bonser allowed them. Mike Redmond drove in runs with singles in each of his first three at bats and the Twins combined for five doubles in the game. Nick Punto also tripled.

The Twins tied up the game three times from the fourth through sixth innings, but didn’t hold a lead until the seventh inning. Alexi Casilla got things started with an infield single and a stolen base and then Punto’s triple drove him in. Joe Mauer hit a sacrifice fly to deep left field to add some padding to what was a one run lead.

The bullpen was excellent. Pat Neshek took over for Bonser in the sixth inning and struck out the side. Dennys Reyes was the only reliever to allow a baserunner. He walked one in the seventh inning while recording two outs. Jesse Crain finished the seventh and pitched the eighth without allowing a base runner. Finally, it was nice to see Joe Nathan dominate the opposing hitters when he struck out the side in the ninth for his sixth save of the year.

Game Notes

• The Twins were a little over-aggressive on the bases in the game. With Justin Morneau on third in the fourth inning, Jason Kubel grounded out to first and Morneau headed home. He was out by 15 feet. In the next inning Mauer tried to advance to third on a pop out to first. There was no one covering third, but they were able to get there in time and with Morneau about to come to the plate Mauer made the final out of the inning in a tied ball game.
• The Twins had a season high 16 hits in the game. Six hitters had a multi-hit game.
• Torii Hunter got his 11th double of the year. Morneau and Mauer each had two double in the game.
• Bonser struck out 7 through five innings, but the home run got to him again. He gave up two homers (both were solo) in the game. Only 3 of his runs were earned due to L-Rod’s 1st inning error.