Minnesota Twins vs Los Angeles Angels Match Player Stats On Jun 02, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Jun 3, 2017

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Minnesota Twins aren't exactly a power-hitting bunch, their 58 home runs entering Friday's game against the Los Angeles Angels better than only two other American League teams.

For one night, though, Minnesota bucked the trend.

The Twins smashed three homers in the first three innings and cruised to an 11-5 win over the Angels, taking the second game of the four-game series after winning Thursday as well.

Joe Mauer homered in the first inning and Robbie Grossman and Max Kepler each homered in the third inning -- all three coming with a man on base to give Minnesota a 6-0 lead.

In addition to his home run, Mauer also had three singles among the Twins' 15 hits.

The Twins added another run off Angels starter JC Ramirez in the fifth inning on Miguel Sano's RBI single, and pushed across four more runs off the Los Angeles' bullpen.

It was a windfall for Twins starter Kyle Gibson, who picked up just his second win of the season. It was a breakthrough outing of sorts for Gibson, who threw 98 pitches and lasted 5 2/3 innings, both season highs.

He shut out the Angels though five innings, then seemingly hit a wall in the sixth, when Los Angeles scored twice off him and might have had more if not for some hard-hit balls hit right at people.

Gibson (2-4) gave up six hits, walked two and struck out six.

For Ramirez (5-4), his 4 1/3 innings was his shortest stint since he joined the rotation on April 14 in place of the injured Garrett Richards. He had pitched into the seventh inning in four consecutive starts before Friday, when he gave up seven runs and eight hits.

The Angels scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth, two coming in on Danny Espinosa's home run.

There were signs early that it was going to be a long night for Ramirez, who was hit hard and didn't allow any bleeders.

Grossman doubled with one out in the first inning and scored on Mauer's two-run home run. After Ramirez worked a 1-2-3 second inning, the Twins teed off on him again in the third.

After a single by Brian Dozier, Grossman hit a two-run homer. One out later, Sano singled and scored on a monster blast by Kepler, putting the Twins up 6-0.

Ramirez had another 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, but the Twins knocked him out of the game in the fifth inning. The final straw was Sano's RBI single that made it 7-0.

Gibson, meanwhile, cruised through the early innings. The Angels' biggest threat against him came in the first when Andrelton Simmons and Kole Calhoun led off the inning with back-to-back hits. But Simmons was thrown out trying to go first to third on Calhoun's blooper to left, thwarting a potential rally.

NOTES: Twins 1B Joe Mauer's first-inning home run only continued his career-long offensive dominance against the Angels. The homer was his 100th career hit against them and his career average of .346 (103 for 298) is second best among all opposing hitters, trailing Houston's Jose Altuve (.361). ... Angels RHP Bud Norris is dealing with a sore right knee that is causing manager Mike Scioscia to be careful with him. Norris had to leave the game May 26 after three pitches when his knee began to hurt. ... The Angels signed OF Michael Bourn and assigned him to Triple-A Salt Lake. Bourn will help give the Angels outfield depth with both CF Mike Trout and OF Cameron Maybin on the disabled list. ... The triple play turned by the Twins on Thursday was their 12th in club history and their third against the Angels (also 1966 and '83).