Robbie Grossman, Trevor Plouffe and Byron Buxton all homered, Ricky Nolasco went six innings in a 9-4 Minnesota Twins win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Monday.
“We had a fairly complete game,” Twins manager Paul Molitor told the Associated Press.
“Defense was good for the most part. We got a nice, solid start, and the bullpen did their job. It’s not a lot of nights when we’ve been able to complement all areas of our game. I don’t know if it’s one of our best games, but we haven’t had many games where we’ve had leads of five, six runs going in late, so in that sense, it might be right up there.”
Nolasco gave up seven hits and three earned runs in 6.0 innings. Newly-acquired reliever Neil Ramirez gave up the other run.
Angels starter Jered Weaver was able to go six as well, but gave up six runs, five earned, and his defense committed three errors behind him, plus he had a balk.
‘‘They had a couple of miscues on the defensive side and we have paid the price for that this year,’’ Molitor told the Star Tribune. ‘‘A lot of teams have capitalized on our defensive mistakes. And tonight it was nice to see that when we got an opportunity with extra outs we were able to get some hits and keep adding on.’’
Second baseman Johnny Giavotella was the only Angels player with more than one hit, going 4-for-4 from the plate. He scored two runs, including a home run, but committed an error that led to Plouffe’s homer in Minnesota’s three-run third inning.
“It’s all kind of irrelevant,” Giavotella told the Associated Press. “The story tonight is our defense. I made an error to put us in a hole, and we couldn’t get out of it. That loss is on me. We can’t give teams extra outs.”
‘‘Any time you get that type of offense it’s great,’’ Nolasco told the Star Tribune. ‘‘Hopefully we can keep it going. It’s a good way to start this little road trip we’ve got.’’
[Star Tribune, Associated Press]
