April 19, 2016

Twins extend winning streak to 4 games

Losing streak? What losing streak?

The Twins are quickly making the baseball world forget their horrible start after they knocked off the Milwaukee Brewers in a rain-shortened game on Monday, extending the team’s winning streak to four games.

And just like the series with the Angels, the Twins got plenty of hits and enough pitching to beat the Brewers, 7-4. Perhaps most important: Miguel Sano, who hit 18 home runs in 80 games last year as a rookie, hit his first home run of 2016, a no-doubt-about-it special that rocketed out of the ballpark to tie the game.

That’s great news for Sano, who, like the rest of the team, got off to a slow start. Another slow starter and another player who the Twins expect big things from this year — Byung Ho Park — hit his third home run of the season. Eduardo Nunez, Brian Dozier and Oswaldo Arcia also had two hits apiece on Monday.

Starting pitcher Phil Hughes gave up three earned runs over six innings with two uncharacteristic walks and six strikeouts.

Extra innings…

Former manager Ron Gardenhire, who won six division titles with the Twins but was let go after the 2014 season, has found a job again with his old team.

Gardenhire has been hired as a special assistant to General Manager Terry Ryan, the team announced Monday. He also will serve as a roving instructor and evaluator in the minor leagues and also will scout major league teams, according to MLB.com.

Gardenhire won more than 1,000 games with the Twins. He also was the American League manager of the year in 2010 and a five-time runner-up for the same award. His ties to the Twins date to 1987 when he finished his playing career at Triple-A Portland.

Surprisingly, given his success with the Twins, Gardenhire could not find a big league managing job after the 2014 season. He interviewed for jobs with the San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals, but those jobs went to Andy Green and Dusty Baker.

 

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.