Offense Goes Boom to Complete Sweep in Minnesota

Three hard hit balls by Twins batters are what started Jake Peavy’s day. Both Span and Ben Revere made deep, loud outs before Joe Mauer inched his way ever closer to double digit homeruns on the season and staked Minnesota to a quick 1-0 lead. The Twins didn’t have many runs coming their way after that, and wouldn’t come close to matching what the White Sox offense had in store.

White Sox (79-66): 9
Twins (60-87): 2

The Big Donkey is back and providing much needed punch. (Brace Hemmelgarn-US PRESSWIRE)

In the 3rd inning the White Sox got some offense cooking. Tyler Flowers reached on a walk, and Gordon Beckham singled him around to third putting him in position to tag and score when Dewayne Wise hit a fly ball to Denard Span. Youkilis followed with a double to straightaway center that was a foot away from being a homerun to straightway center.

Alex Rios looked ready to waste a 4th inning hit by getting caught trying to steal second before the pitcher had made up his mind to throw home. The throw from Mauer at first to get Rios at second didn’t get there quite in time though and Dayan Viciedo put a blast against the wall in right center to score him. Then those off the wall doubles ended and the upper deck long balls started. Adam Dunn hit his first bomb since August 24 into the upper deck in right, a couple batters later Dayan Viciedo went upper level in left with Alex Rios standing on third via triple to push the score to 6-2.

After a first inning that made me wonder if Peavy was just trusting the large ballpark to hold everything in, Jake settled down and only allowed one more run on the day. In his 6 innings he struck out 6, allowed 4 hits and 2 runs. He threw 101 pitches and with a 7 run lead was able to let the bullpen step in and take it the rest of the way. Donnie Veal had an opportunity in the 8th to pitch to more than just a single batter and showed some more skill by getting through a full inning by just allowing a walk. Donnie has emerged with a small sample size to be a force in the ‘pen. In his 10.2 innings so far in 2012 he’s allowed just 2 hits.

Plus: Adam Dunn back in the lineup is big. Adam Dunn back in the lineup producing is ever bigger. The Big Donkey went 2-4 driving in a pair of those 9 White Sox runs. I mean, he’s no Dewayne Wise in that 3-hole but he’ll do!

Minus: Not much to complain about in a rout. Peavy cruised, Omogrosso was a bit shaky, perhap, but got the job done, and hey, a Philip Humber sighting!

Player of the Game:
Dayan Viciedo – .184 WPA

Source: