Now that the losing streak has been taken care of, the Twins can start doing something about all those ugly numbers next to their names on the scoreboard.
Brian Dozier, .167? Byung Ho Park, the same? Kurt Suzuki, .087? Byron Buxton, .154? Miguel Sano — zero home runs?
Upgrade those numbers, because the Twins teed off on Brewers righthander Chase Anderson on Monday night, building their first three-run lead of the season — another somewhat embarrassing number, true — in a 7-4 victory over Milwaukee that was shortened to six innings when the skies opened up over Target Field. The teams waited 2 hours, 6 minutes before the game was called, the first rain-shortened game in Target Field history.
Not that anyone with the Twins was complaining about the wait, not when it delivered them their fourth consecutive victory following an 0-9 start.
"Today we kind of opened it up, offensively," said Joe Mauer, who doubled home the final run before the rain came. "Obviously, we've been playing well lately. Hopefully that continues."
Sano launched a 3-2 fastball into the Brewers bullpen to lead off the second inning, starting a Twins onslaught in the first of four interleague rivalry games this week played in both cities.
"When you're homerless, it's in your brain somewhere each and every day. Like [hitting coach Tom Brunansky] keeps preaching [to Sano], just keep hitting line drives. You're strong enough to hit a line drive out of the park," manger Paul Molitor said. "It will probably help him relax a little bit and hopefully get him on a little bit of a run."
Two singles later, Suzuki joined in, doubling to center field and driving in the Twins' second run. That hit was significant, too, to Molitor, who has stuck by his veteran catcher through a 2-for-23 start.
"You can just see the tension when he's up there, he's trying so hard to get a hit. Tonight, I hadn't seen him hit a ball like that, to right-center, since he's been here," Molitor said of Suzuki, who added a single two innings later. "Like anybody who gets a couple hits when you've been struggling, that sure helped."
Same for Dozier, who singled and doubled in four at-bats, driving in a run. Then Park led off the fourth inning with a 400-foot rocket into the right-field overhang, his team-high third home run of the season. When Suzuki singled again later in the inning, Buxton tripled him in by fading a line drive down the left-field line.
And Mauer, the one Twins player who has been hitting all season — his .372 average entering Monday ranked third in the American League — made a little history when he joined in.
Mauer doubled off former teammate Blaine Boyer in the sixth inning, giving him 1,714 hits in his career. That ranks fifth in Twins history, one more than the 1,713 that Harmon Killebrew amassed.
"Any time you're mentioned with Harmon, you're doing something really good," Mauer said. "It's pretty special."
The Twins had already racked up 14 hits, a season high, before a sudden rainstorm struck at the end of the sixth inning, halting the game and enabling fans to watch the Wild-Dallas playoff game on the huge left-field scoreboard.
The Brewers managed their own offensive outburst as well, albeit not quite as strong. Phil Hughes fell behind 1-0 only three batters in, when Scooter Gennett doubled and Ryan Braun singled him in. Hughes experienced another two-run hiccup in the fourth, tying the score at 3-3, though one of the runs was unearned after Dozier's throwing error.
In the fifth, Gennett and Braun hit back-to-back doubles to pull Milwaukee within 5-4. But Hughes got five consecutive outs after that, and the rain gave him his first victory since Sept. 23.
