On a day that the Minnesota Twins offense scored all of its runs on six home runs, five of them solo shots, starter Tyler Duffey was able to go 8.0 innings, and only gave up one run — a solo shot to Mark Teixeira.
Still, Duffey left the mound upset that he couldn’t complete the shutout.
“Throw the ball over the plate — it does wonders,” Duffey told the Star Tribune. “Mainly, I was able to spot my fastball well, and everything else worked off that.”
In the top of the sixth, Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe and Max Kepler went deep back-to-back-to-back for the first time since the second game of a doubleheader on July 6, 2007, against the White Sox in Chicago when Justin Morneau hit three and Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer and Jeff Cirillo also homered.
Danny Santana, Eduardo Nunez and Juan Centeno also went yard in Sunday’s game
“I keep telling you guys, and it’s true — hitting is contagious,” Dozier told the Star Tribune after reaching double digits in homers for the fourth consecutive season. “When guys start heating up around you, you kind of want to do the same, and good things happen.”
Former Twin Aaron Hicks, who has made an impact throughout this series, broke up Duffey’s perfect game in the bottom of the sixth inning.
“As I walked past him, I said, ‘Why couldn’t you just swing through that one like the first one?’ “ Duffey told the Pioneer Press. “I made sure to keep my head down so nobody could see that.”
Teixeira’s bomb in the eighth broke up Duffey’s shutout bid. But for a player who was on the brink of being sent back down to Triple-A, it was a reassuring performance in a tough venue — even if Duffey left the mound upset.
“We had a little moment there. I had to let him know, yeah, we get it, you have a potential shutout maybe going back out for the ninth,” Molitor told the Star Tribune. “It’s good to have goals like that. You just don’t want to see a 6-1 lead in the eighth inning, when you’ve given up two hits, to cause an overreaction because a guy got hold of a breaking pitch. I think he gets that. It just speaks to what he expects out of himself.”
[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, The Associated Press]
