Minnesota 9, Tampa Bay 7
When: 1:10 PM ET, Thursday, April 24, 2014
Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida
Temperature:
Indoors
Umpires:
Home -
Ted Barrett, 1B -
Will Little, 2B -
Paul Schrieber, 3B -
Mark Carlson
Attendance:
13177
By SportsDirect Inc.
Twins 9, Rays 7: Kurt Suzuki was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and Aaron Hicks belted a three-run homer as visiting Minnesota outslugged Tampa Bay to take two of three in the series.
Former Ray Sam Fuld chipped in with two doubles, a single and two RBIs while Trevor Plouffe added two hits and an RBI for the Twins. Ricky Nolasco (2-2) was the beneficiary of Minnesota’s offensive explosion, allowing six runs on 10 hits over six-plus innings and Glen Perkins notched his fifth save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
David DeJesus hit his first homer of the season while James Loney added two hits and two RBIs for the Rays, who gave up 18 runs and scored 18 in the series. Tampa Bay starter Erik Bedard (0-1) was charged with four runs on five hits and five walks in four innings while throwing 90 pitches.
Bedard walked three in the first inning before Suzuki delivered a two-run single and Fuld followed with an RBI double for a 3-0 lead. Plouffe’s run-scoring single in the second extended the lead before back-to-back doubles by Evan Longoria and Loney and a two-run blast by DeJesus pulled the Rays within 4-3 in the bottom of the frame.
The Twins extended the lead to 8-3 in the fifth when Fuld lined an RBI double and Hicks hammered his first homer since last July into the right-field seats on a 3-2 pitch from Heath Bell. The Rays pulled within 9-7 on Logan Forsythe’s pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth, but Desmond Jennings popped up against Jared Burton with the bases loaded to end the inning.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The Twins won their first series at Tampa Bay since Sept. 4-6, 2006, when they took two of three. … Rays RHP Juan Carlos Oviedo pitched in his first major-league game since September 2011 after Tommy John elbow surgery, allowing one hit and two walks while striking out two in 1 1/3 scoreless innings. … Fuld had five hits in 10 at-bats the last two days against his old teammates. ... Twins manager Ron Gardenhire earned his 1,009th win to move into 59th place on the all-time list.
Top Game Performances
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| Minnesota
|
12 |
1 |
18 |
.308 |
28 |
7 |
9 |
8 |
1 |
1 |
| Tampa Bay
|
13 |
1 |
19 |
.371 |
14 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
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