CINCINNATI – Twins manager Paul Molitor was looking for more offense on Monday night, when he juggled his lineup to bat Torii Hunter third for the first time all season.
He got the desired effect, but the Twins could not outhit Mike Pelfrey's poor pitching.
Pelfrey was torched early, and it looked like it would be blowout city at Great American Ball Park. The Twins fought back to make things interesting before losing 11-7 to the Reds. It was only the fifth time this month the Twins had reached seven runs, and it came in a loss.
"At the end of day we ended up scoring seven, and we need to win with that," said Pelfrey (5-5), whose two-plus innings Monday were his shortest outing since May 21, 2013. "That's frustrating to be down 9-1 after three. I put these guys — not only the bullpen but the offense — in a hole."
Cincinnati scored three runs in the first, one in the second and five in the third to knock Pelfrey out and get some licks in on recently promoted righthander Alex Meyer.
The Twins were coming off a three-game weekend series in which they hit .219 at Milwaukee, including .143 with runners in scoring position. But Molitor's lineup, which also had Joe Mauer batting second and Eddie Rosario fifth, started clicking against Reds righthander Mike Leake, albeit when Cincinnati held an eight-run lead.
Hunter led off the fourth with a double then scored on Trevor Plouffe's single. Rosario ended a lengthy at-bat with a single to center, putting two runners on.
Kurt Suzuki struck out, but Eduardo Escobar cracked an RBI double to score Plouffe and make it 9-3. Pinch hitter Kennys Vargas popped out, but Danny Santana singled to right to make it 9-4 and bring Brian Dozier to the plate with two men on.