A trio of extras from a beautiful day at Target Field.
— There's a reason Trevor Plouffe hit a home run on Saturday. Josh Willingham told him to.
The former Twins slugger is at Target Field this weekend, and he's spent some time with his old teammates. "It's fun having him in town," Plouffe said. "He told me he wanted to hit him one today."
No problem. Plouffe smashed a pitch from Hector Noesi into the Twins' bullpen in his first at-bat, raising his team-leading season total to four. "That was pretty cool, it was a cool moment for us," Plouffe said.
On the other hand, maybe it wasn't so special. "We used to say that [to each other] every day," Plouffe admitted.
— Torii Hunter also homered off Noesi, a blast that carried a half-dozen rows deep into the left-field stands. "He hung a slider, something I can capitalize on," Hunter said. "Kirby Puckett always told me, 'Hey, that's a gift from God. Don't miss your blessing.' "
Hunter didn't, collecting his second homer of the season — and there apparently are more to come. Plouffe said he doesn't understand why people are surprised that Hunter can still hit homers at the age of 39. "I saw him do it, so I'm not surprised. I was expecting it," Plouffe said. "He can still play."
Agreed Molitor, "I don't think we are expecting to turn back the clock 10 years or anything like that. … But as we've seen, every once in awhile, he can still put a charge in one."
