By Joe Christensen, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) –
MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins haven’t had a player hit 40 home runs in a season since Harmon Killebrew smashed 41 in 1970.
Last year, Michael Cuddyer led them with 20. Now, newcomer Josh Willingham is on pace for 43.
Killebrew, who died last year, would have loved watching Willingham’s powerful righthanded swing and his ability to change games for the Twins.
The latest example came Saturday, when Cleveland sinkerballer Justin Masterson retired the first 11 batters he faced. In the fourth inning, Joe Mauer walked and stole second base, and then Masterson threw a hanging slider, which Willingham drilled for home run No. 27.
Pretty soon, the route was on. With 29-year-old rookie Samuel Deduno delivering another strong start, the Twins rolled to a 12-5 victory over the Indians before a sellout crowd of 39,166 at Target Field.
In two games, the Twins have outscored the Indians 23-5, and Saturday’s victory moved the Twins out of last place in the American League Central for the first time since April 29. They moved a game ahead of the Royals, who have lost six of their past seven games.
No. 9 hitter Alexi Casilla had four RBI — with a two-run triple followed by a two-run double. Denard Span and Ben Revere also had two RBI, but the big blow came from Willingham.
“He just continues to just amaze you, just watching him swing,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.
Willingham, whose name has been circulating in recent trade rumors because of his huge season and the three-year, $21 million contract he signed before the season, hit a career-high 29 home runs last year for Oakland. Eighteen of those homers came after the All-Star break.
“I went on the DL last year one time, and that set me back a little bit,” he said, “But I had a pretty good second half last year powerwise.”
Deduno (2-0) won his second start in a row, following up his first career victory Sunday at Kansas City by going seven innings against the Indians. He got off to a rough start, as Shin-Soo Choo led off the game with a single and Michael Brantley walked. But he escaped the first inning giving up only one run, and over the next six innings he gave up only one more hit. He walked five and struck out six.
Tyler Robertson pitched the eighth inning, giving up a two-run homer to Carlos Santana, and Luis Perdomo had a rocky Twins debut in the ninth, giving up a hit, three walks and two unearned runs before getting removed for Casey Fien.
By then, though, the game was out of reach, a scenario that was hard to imagine after Masterson’s masterful start. After Willingham’s homer, he wasn’t the same.
The Twins kept adding runs from there. In the fifth inning, Danny Valencia, back in the big leagues in place of the injured Trevor Plouffe, reached on a one-out throwing error by Cleveland third baseman Jack Hannahan. Brian Dozier singled before Casilla drove in both runners with a triple high off the right-field wall. With two out, Revere dumped a bloop single to left to score Casilla for a 5-1 lead.
The Twins then loaded the bases off Masterson (7-9) in the sixth before Casilla lined a double to left-center, scoring Justin Morneau and Valencia. Denard Span then ended a 10-pitch at-bat with another double to score two more runs, ending Masterson’s night.
He gave up eight hits and 10 runs in 5 innings — after 3 perfect innings to start the game.
