Plouffe powers Twins over Marlins
MINNEAPOLIS -- Trevor Plouffe homered early and had a run-scoring double late in the Minnesota Twins' 7-5 win over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday.
Plouffe hit a ball off the right field wall with two outs in the seventh, breaking a tie game by scoring Joe Mauer from first base, as the Twins (18-40) won their second game in a row. Taylor Rogers (2-0) pitched a scoreless seventh to get the win for Minnesota, which had not won a home series since April.
Nick Wittgren (1-1) took the loss for Miami (30-29), which has now dropped four of its last five. Wittgren came on in relief of Wei-Yin Chen and allowed a pair of runs and four hits in 1 1/3 innings.
Twins starter Ricky Nolasco worked 5 2/3 innings and allowed five runs on 11 hits. Wei-Yin Chen lasted 5 1/3 for the Marlins, allowing nine hits and five runs. It was his fourth consecutive no decision. Brandon Kintzler pitched the ninth for Minnesota to earn his first career save, striking out Giancarlo Stanton to end the game.
Miami trailed 4-0 early, but rallied to take a 5-4 lead as Chen retired nine consecutive Minnesota batters at one point. Miami took the lead in the sixth, when four consecutive two-out hits chased Nolasco and brought Miguel Rojas across the plate. But the Twins answered in the bottom half of the inning when Byung Ho Park homered into the Marlins bullpen in centerfield for a 5-5 tie.
The Twins' recent parade of long balls got going early as Joe Mauer gave the home team a first-inning lead by sending a 1-0 pitch from Chen into a flower bed in left field. It was the 20th consecutive game in which Mauer has reached base safely.
Minnesota went up 2-0 in the second when Byung Ho Park reached on a fielder's choice, advanced on a double by Oswaldo Arcia and scored on a single by Kurt Suzuki.
Miami threatened in the third with men on first and third and one out, but Christian Yelich bounced into a double play. The Twins doubled their lead when Mauer reached on a fielder's choice and Plouffe followed with a 394-foot shot to left-center. It was the ninth homer hit by the Twins in their last three games.
The Marlins finally answered in the fifth, bringing nine men to the plate and scoring four runs on five hits in the inning to forge a 4-4 tie. The biggest blow was Marcell Ozuna's bases-loaded single that plated two.
NOTES: Good things are happening down on the farm for Miami, where seven members of the Double-A Jacksonville Suns were named to the Southern League All-Star Game on Wednesday. ... Signed by the Twins on May 17 as a minor league free agent and called up two days later, LF Robbie Grossman is getting to know the base paths quickly. He entered Wednesday's game having reached base safely in 16 of his first 17 games in Minnesota. ... The Marlins had Ichiro Suzuki lead off and DH on Wednesday. He began the game 17 career hits behind Jim Rice for 30th on the list of major league career leaders. But his 2,968 MLB hits combined with the 1,278 he collected in nine seasons of pro baseball in Japan place him just 10 back of the 4,256 career hits Pete Rose notched. ... The three-game series concludes on Thursday evening with Twins RHP Ervin Santana (1-5, 4.50 ERA) facing Marlins RHP Tom Koehler (3-6, 4.50 ERA).