Phil Hughes points to 'unseen' double play as key in Twins' rout in Detroit

The Twins are back home to start (weather permitting) a three-game series against Chicago tonight at Target Field.

Adalberto Mejia of the Twins (6-3) gets another shot at the White Sox (4-4) after they knocked him around in his first big-league start last weekend. Chicago righty Dylan Covey will make his major league debut on the mound.

A couple of extras from the Twins' road finale, an 11-5 victory in Detroit on Thursday:

The game wasn't televised, but it's not likely that the play that Phil Hughes described as the "turning point" would have made much of an impression. In a game with 16 runs and 20 hits, a strikeout/caught stealing double play can get lost in all the offense.

But "that was massive," Hughes said of the fifth inning play. The Twins led 6-2 at the time, but "you're looking at an inning where I walked the leadoff guy, then fell behind 3-1 to [Jose] Iglesias — that couldn't snowballed into a big inning, with the lineup turning over there. Put a couple guys on base and who knows what could happen?"

Iglesias, though, tried bunting the next pitch, and it rolled foul. After another foul ball, Hughes said, "I was able to execute a pretty good down-and-away cutter. Fortunately he swung through it." At the same time, JaCoby Jones took off for second base, and Chris Gimenez threw him out, the first baserunner thrown out by the backup catcher this season.

"That was a big turning point in the game," Hughes said. "It might not have appeared it because it was kind of an innocent situation in a 6-2 game, but it could have gone downhill in a hurry."

Gimenez had a memorable moment in the ninth inning, too, when he led off against Joe Jimenez, the first Gimenez-Jimenez confrontation of his career. It was also the Tiger pitcher's major-league debut.

"I've never faced Ubaldo, so this was my first at-bat against a Jimenez," the Twins' catcher said. "I was pretty excited, especially against a new kid, until they told me he threw 98 [mph] with a nasty slider."

Gimenez fouled off two of those fastballs before flying out to right.

Justin Haley picked up his first major league save in interesting fashion with a 10-out performance.