ANAHEIM -- Twins manager Paul Molitor smirked when he asked if, of the Twins 20 wins this season, was Monday's the best of them all.
``Twenty wins, I probably could go through them all.," he said. ``We had a fairly complete game in terms of defense was good for the most part. We got a solid start and the bullpen did its job. It's not a lot of nights we have been able to complement all areas of our game by being efficient."
That was just part of the reason why the Twins were able to beat the Angels 9-4 on Monday. The other part was that the 27-37 Angels just aren't that good. They have been stung by injuries and slumping players. Their bullpen was so worn out that, on Monday, they called up former Twin minor leaguer A.J. Achter and former overused Tiger Al Alburquerque.
The Twins did play well. Ricky Nolasco fought through six innings to improve to 3-4 and become the first starter to, A, win a game this month and, B, win three games this season. The nine runs were a season high. And it was just the fourth time all season that the Twins did not trail during a game.
But they also took advantage of three official errors and one bonehead play. The Angels have lost seven of their last eight games.
The Twins are 4-0 against the Angels, 16-43 against the rest of baseball.
On Monday they slowly added on to a 4-3 lead after four innings. Robbie Grossman scored as Plouffe grounded into a double play in the fifth to make it 5-3. Byron Buxton hit his first home run of the season in the sixth, a floater down the left field line that snuck into the seats. The Twins led 6-3.
Grossman led off the seventh with a solo home run to center, but the Twins proceeded to plate two more runs as Angels shortstop Gregorio Petit committed two errors and third baseman Yunel Escobar allowed Brian Dozier to reach third on a ground out despite being within tagging range of Escobar. Dozier waited between second and third for Escobar to throw to first, then pulled into third once he did. Dozier eventually scored the third run of the inning.
