Here are a few extras from a nice win for the Twins on Monday, a bounce-back performance after Sunday's disappointing loss:
Aaron Hicks watched a 98-mph fastball from Yordano Ventura whiz past for a strike to open the game. Then he watched a 99-mph fastball sail outside for a ball.
On the third pitch, Ventura tried an 87-mph changeup. It landed in the Twins' bullpen.
It was the second time this season that Hicks has opened a game with a home run, and it gives the Twins an MLB-leading eight such homers this season — Brian Dozier has the other six.
"It's nice to start a game that way," Twins manager Paul Molitor said, "especially with a guy like Ventura, on the road. He went to an off-speed pitch and left it up."
The number that really impresses Molitor, however, is a little higher.
"Hicks, in I don't know how many at-bats — 250? [Actually 264] — he's got 10 home runs," Molitor said. "He's starting to show he's capable of hitting the ball over the fence."
He's got as many this season, in fact, as in his previous two seasons combined (nine). And Monday's blast off Ventura was his fourth from the left side, so his power is coming both ways.