Following a Joe Mauer walk, Trevor Plouffe got a juicy pitch from Atlanta Braves starter Joel De La Cruz and knocked it into center for an RBI double. The 1-0 lead stood until the 7th inning en route to a 4-2 Minnesota Twins win at Turner Field.
Ervin Santana pitched seven shutout innings against his former team, only allowing four hits and striking out six to improve to 6-9 on the year.
“He just commands both sides of the plate with his fastball,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman told the Associated Press. “He’s got that slider you think you’re going to hit, and it just disappears. He had it working today.”
Things opened up in the 8th inning when Mauer hit a solo shot and Kurt Suzuki scored Plouffe on a single to center. Atlanta closed the gap by scoring two runs off of Taylor Rogers in the bottom frame, but Ryan Pressly shut the door and Plouffe added an insurance run in the 9th to seal the victory.
“The game took on a little bit of a different look near the end,” Molitor told the Star Tribune. “Early on, it was all about getting a run on the board and watching Ervin go to work. He was just on cruise control there for a while.”
[Star Tribune, Associated Press]
