TWINS BELT 6 HRS IN MAULING OF CHISOX
Arcia's 2 Longballs Include Slam, 3-Run Blast
CHICAGO, Apr. 2 (AP) - Oswaldo Arcia hit a grand slam and a three-run home run,
part of a six-longball uprising, as the Minnesota Twins outlasted the Chicago
White Sox 17-10 at U.S. Cellular Field. Brian Dozier also hit a pair of
home runs for the Twins, while Trevor Plouffe and Aaron Hicks each went deep
once. It's still very early in the season, but Arcia's seven-RBI outburst
is easily the most prolific in the major leagues to date. No other player
has driven in more than four runs in a single game. And, no other team has
hit more than two home runs in one game.
The Twins plated six runs in the very first inning off White Sox starter Felipe
Paulino, all of them with two outs. Back-to-back one-out singles off the
bats of Joe Mauer and Josh Willingham put runners on first and second, but Jason
Kubel fanned for the second out. Plouffe walked to load the bases and
Arcia unloaded on an 0-1 pitch for the first grand slam of the 2014 big league
season to give Minnesota a 4-0 lead. Kurt Suzuki reached safely on third
baseman Marcus Semien's error and Hicks capped the top of the first scoring with
a blast into the right-center field bleachers to up the ante to 6-0.
The White Sox scrapped back. Adam Eaton led off the bottom of the first
with a double off Twins starter Kevin Correia and later scored on Jose Abreu's
ground out to cut the deficit to 6-1. A Leury Garcia single and Correia's
wild pitch accounted for a pair of second inning Chicago runs, making the score
6-3.
Suzuki's single followed another error in the top of the third, ending Paulino's
day and giving Minnesota a 7-3 advantage, but the White Sox roared back in the
bottom half of the inning, sending Correia to the showers in the process.
Avisail Garcia singled and Alejandro de Aza doubled with one out, putting
runners on the corners and they both trotted home on Alexei Ramirez's homer to
left, cutting the lead to 7-6. Samuel Deduno replaced Correia and closed
out the inning, but the lead was down to a single run.
Dozier's home run leading off the top of the fourth made it 8-6, but the White
Sox improbably took the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Semien
singled and Abreu walked ahead of Adam Dunn's fielder's choice, leaving runners
on first and third with one out. Avisail Garcia doubled to right, scoring
Semien to make it 8-7 while chasing Dunn to third. De Aza then tripled
into the right field corner, giving Chicago a 9-8 lead. De Aza was
stranded and the lead didn't last long.
In the top of the fifth, Plouffe led off with a long home run to left off
reliever Daniel Webb, tying the game. After Arcia flied out, walks to
Suzuki and Pedro Florimon were sandwiched around a single by Hicks to fill the
bases with one down. Dozier hit a sacrifice fly to left, regaining the
lead for the Twins and Mauer followed with a single to right, scoring Hicks to
make the score 11-9 in favor of Minnesota. Webb walked Willingham, to
reload the bases, then issued two more consecutive free passes to Kubel and
Plouffe, forcing in two more runs. Donnie Veal came on to strike out Arcia,
but the Twins now led 13-9.
Minnesota put the game away in the seventh. With Nate Jones on the hill,
Kubel singled with one out and moved to second when Plouffe drew a free
pass. Arcia followed by driving a 1-1 pitch over the right field fence to
put the Twins ahead 16-9.
A de Aza single drove home Abreu with a consolation run in the bottom of the
seventh but Dozier's second homer of the game in the top of the eighth off
Ronald Belisario capped the scoring. Mercifully, neither team scored in
the ninth.
With the obvious caveat about how early it is in the season, the 27 combined
runs dwarfs that of any other game this season. No other contest has seen
more than 16 total runs. The same can be said about the 18 total walks
issued; no other game to date has seen more than 12.
4/2/2014, Min14-ChA14, U.S. Cellular Field 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 2014 Twins 6 0 1 1 5 0 3 1 0 17 13 1 7 1 2014 White Sox 1 2 3 3 0 0 1 0 0 10 16 2 15 0 Twins AB R H BI AVG White Sox AB R H BI AVG Dozier 2b 4 2 2 3 .556 Eaton cf 6 1 2 0 .545 Mauer 1b 6 2 2 1 .364 Semien 3b 4 1 2 0 .222 Willingham dh 5 1 1 0 .200 Abreu,J 1b 5 1 1 1 .200 Kubel lf 4 1 1 1 .250 Dunn,A dh 3 1 0 0 .000 Bartlett lf 1 0 0 0 .000 Garcia,A rf 6 2 2 1 .200 Plouffe 3b 3 4 1 2 .143 De Aza lf 5 1 3 3 .556 Arcia rf 6 2 3 7 .300 Ramirez,Al ss 6 2 3 3 .300 Suzuki,K c 4 2 1 1 .125 Flowers c 3 1 0 0 .000 Hicks,A cf 5 2 2 2 .375 Garcia,Le 2b 5 0 3 1 .600 Florimon ss 3 1 0 0 .000 43 10 16 9 41 17 13 17 Twins INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Correia 2.1 6 6 6 3 1 64 33 23.14 Deduno W 1-0 2.1 4 3 3 3 3 49 26 11.57 Swarzak H 1 1.1 3 0 0 0 2 24 17 0.00 Tonkin H 1 1.0 2 1 1 1 2 23 16 9.00 Thielbar 1.0 1 0 0 1 1 19 9 0.00 Fien 1.0 0 0 0 1 1 14 8 0.00 9.0 16 10 10 9 10 193 109 White Sox INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Paulino 2.1 6 7 4 1 4 64 40 15.43 Cleto 1.2 1 1 1 0 1 22 14 5.40 Webb,D BS 1, L 0-1 0.2 3 5 5 5 0 40 16 67.50 Veal 1.1 0 0 0 2 3 29 16 0.00 Jones,N 1.0 2 3 3 1 0 28 14 13.50 Belisario 1.0 1 1 1 0 0 9 5 10.80 Lindstrom 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 16 13 0.00 9.0 13 17 14 9 9 208 118 Min: Bartlett inserted at lf in the 8th E-Plouffe, Semien, Garcia,Le. 2B-Eaton(2), Garcia,A(1). 3B-De Aza(1). HR-Dozier 2(3), Plouffe(1), Arcia 2(2), Hicks,A(1), Ramirez,Al(1). RBI-Dozier 3(5), Mauer(3), Kubel(1), Plouffe 2(2), Arcia 7(7), Suzuki,K(1), Hicks,A 2(2), Abreu,J(1), Garcia,A(1), De Aza 3(3), Ramirez,Al 3(3), Garcia,Le(1). K-Dozier, Mauer 2, Willingham, Kubel, Arcia 2, Suzuki,K, Hicks,A, Eaton, Semien, Abreu,J 2, Dunn,A, Garcia,A 2, Ramirez,Al, Flowers, Garcia,Le. BB-Dozier, Willingham, Kubel, Plouffe 3, Suzuki,K, Florimon 2, Semien 2, Abreu,J, Dunn,A 3, De Aza, Flowers 2. SF-Dozier. WP-Correia. GWRBI: Dozier Temperature: 59, Sky: clear, Wind: left to right at 8 MPH. Attendance: 14,159 Game Time: 3:54