The Twins put up nine runs to hand Joe Saunders his first lost in over a month while the Twins held the Angels scoreless in their second straight loss.
The Angels were held to six hits, with Glen Perkins holding the Angels to five through his eight innings. Juan Rivera had of those hits and Erick Aybar hit a double, the only Angel extra-base hit of the game. The Twins have now shut the Angels out for 20 consecutive innings in this series.
Saunders hasn’t loss since July 8, that is, until giving up six runs on nine hits last night for his sixth loss of the season. Saunders shut out the Twins in the first three frames before giving them a lead on Delmon Young’s two-run homerun in the fourth. He gave up another in the fifth and left in the sixth after giving up three straight hits. The loss is also the first time all season that Saunders failed to record a strikeout. Shane Loux then came in and gave up a three-run homerun, and then another run in the seventh, before finishing the game.
The shutout is just the Angels’ second at home all season. They send Jon Garland to the mound in hopes of getting a win so they can avoid a third straight series’ loss. Garland is 8-8 lifetime against the Twins, and went 8 innings with a run in a winning start against them earlier this year. The Twins send Nick Blackburn to the mound. Blackburn is 9-7 and suffered a loss to the Angels earlier this season, though he only gave up one run through seven.
