twin060507

Twins blown out on haloed ground

A third consecutive loss is just the latest example of how Angels Stadium has bedeviled visiting teams this season.

By La Velle E. Neal III, Star Tribune

Last update: June 5, 2007 - 11:09 PM

ANAHEIM, CALIF. - The sea of Thunderstix here are down to a scattered few. Rally Monkey, the Mickey Mouse of this place, is still around to appear when needed.

But the Angels really don't need crowd-pleasing gimmicks to dominate in Angels Stadium right now. It's just flat-out tough enough to beat them in their house, as the Twins found out on Monday while getting flattened 16-3.

"We didn't pitch very well tonight, that was obvious," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. "We had a plan, but we did not go through with that plan. We missed over the plate and we got some balls up."

It's the fifth time the Twins have given up at least 10 runs in a game this season and the third time in the past three weeks.

Los Angeles improved to a Major League-leading 22-8 at home while handing the Twins their third consecutive loss. The Twins can lament the early missed scoring opportunities, but the Angels kept putting pressure on Boof Bonser to make pitches and the defense to execute.

In the end, both broke down.

"Boof could not get them out," Gardenhire said. "He was supposed to pitch inside, but he got the ball over too much of the plate."

Bonser couldn't argue.

"I threw my strikes, but they just hit them where we could not get to them," he said.

The Angels made the game a laugher with eight runs off Jason Miller in the eighth. His lousy pitching forced Gardenhire to call on reliever Pat Neshek to get out of the inning.

The Angels went after Bonser early when Vladimir Guerrero singled home Orlando Cabrera in the first to open the scoring. Gary Matthews Jr., followed with a single to right field, but Michael Cuddyer gunned down Guerrero as he tried to advanced to third.

That was the first of several bang-bang plays around the field that provided plenty of action for the announced crowd of 37,380.

Torii Hunter hit a stomach-high pitch from Jared Weaver over the center-field wall to tie the score in the second.

Guerrero singled in the fourth and later was thrown out by Cuddyer while trying to score on Casey Kotchman's single. Guerrero was on his way to being thrown out at every base by the Twins right fielder.

The Angels knocked Bonser out of the game in the sixth inning.

Kotchman, whose battles with Bonser go back to Little League in St. Petersburg, Fla., led off the sixth with a home run to right. Howie Kendrick followed with a sharp single to center, and catcher Mike Napoli blasted a two-run homer to left as the Angels took a 6-1 lead. Bonser was replaced by former Angel Ramon Ortiz, who gave up RBI singles by Cabrera and Matthews to make it 8-1.

Los Angeles had 15 hits, a season high, through six innings. They ended up with 23 hits.

That's more than enough for the Angels to win in their house.

La Velle E. Neal III • lneal@startribune.com

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