A trio of postgame thoughts to wrap up the Twins' 5-4 victory over Seattle:
SENATORS ARE SECOND: It's an odd bit of history, but the Minnesota Twins overtook their forerunners by beating Seattle on Friday. The victory improved the Twins' record since moving to Minnesota for the 1961 season to 4,224 wins, 4,262 losses and eight ties. That's one more victory, over 54 seasons, than the franchise won as the Washington Senators from its founding in 1901 to its final season in the capital 60 years later. The Senators won 4,223, lost 4,864 and tied 101, a winning percentage of .465 -- far worse than Minnesota's .498. And, of course, the Twins own two World Series titles, while the Senators' lone win came in 1924.
TWINS' NEW SLUGGER: Speaking of Twins' history, Brian Dozier made a little on Friday by slamming an eye-high fastball into the left-field seats, his 10th home run of the season. It's the 19th time since the team moved to Minnesota that a Twins player reached double digits in the first 40 games of the season. The 10 players to start out so hot is an all-star list: Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Tony Oliva, Justin Morneau, Kent Hrbek, Bob Alison, Tom Brunansky, Gary Gaetti, Larry Hisle and Jimmy Hall. But Dozier laughed at the notion that he's now a power hitter. "Never," he said. His homer off 6-foot-8 Seattle starter Chris Young was an amazing shot, but Dozier said Young was throwing high strikes all night. "He's been getting people out because he's got such a good angle, because he's eight feet tall," Dozier said. "But he left a lot of pitches up in the zone."
IN KURT THEY TRUST: Both Kyle Gibson and Glen Perkins had plenty of praise after the game for Kurt Suzuki, who has clearly earned the trust of the pitching staff for his ability to block pitches in the dirt. "I think I threw four sliders tonight with a guy on third base," Perkins said of his typically diving-in-the-dirt pitch. "I threw [Corey] Hart two and I threw Justin Smoak two, and yeah, he's going to block them." Manager Ron Gardenhire said that trust in Suzuki allows Twins pitchers to throw their best pitches in any situation -- something that they would be more hesitant to do with a catcher who lets too many balls get past. Perkins did get one by Suzuki, but took the blame himself for that one -- "I spiked it a little too much and it hit him on the shoulder," Perkins said.
