--C Joe Mauer homered in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday and has three home runs in his first 32 at-bats of the season. Last season, it took him more than 250 at-bats before he hit his third home run. Mauer went 2-for-4 on Sunday and has now hit safely in seven of his nine games this season.
--RF Michael Cuddyer's three-run home run to deep left field on Saturday night had the Twins marveling after the game. Manager Ron Gardenhire said he remembered only one home run that touched that part of the ballpark during his tenure, and it was a Mark McGwire blast. After a slow start to 2009, Cuddyer had hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games entering Sunday, batting .412 with a double, two triples, two homers and 11 RBIs during that span. BY THE NUMBERS: 7 -- After failing to homer in five straight games (208 plate appearances) last week and mustering just 19 homers in their first 29 games of the season, the Twins exploded for seven in two games over the weekend, scoring 13 runs off long balls in two wins against Seattle.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Once we got going, we tried to play five innings, and Major League Baseball is nine innings. And we didn't get a chance to do that because the weather, from the get-go, showed that we shouldn't be doing this, from the get-go. Somebody made a mistake here and screwed up. I don't know who is supposed to be accountable for this mess, but my team ends up paying the final price." -- Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, fuming after Minnesota lost a rain-shortened game in Baltimore last week.
