--RHP Scott Baker went toe-to-toe with red-hot Detroit RHP Justin Verlander. Both starters threw five shutout innings to start Thursday's game, but in the sixth Baker unraveled, giving up five runs, six hits and a walk, putting his team down 5-0. Baker has now allowed five-plus earned runs in four of his six starts this season.
"I never felt like the game was out of my control," Baker said. "I just tried to make good pitches. I didn't feel like my pace was too fast or too slow or I wasn't thinking out there or my focus wasn't where it needed to be, it was. Change a pitch here and there and it's a different ballgame. I know it's tough for you guys to see, but reviewing some of those pitches they were decent pitches. They just didn't hit it at anybody." --Manager Ron Gardenhire was ejected in the seventh inning for arguing with plate umpire Paul Nauert about whether RF Michael Cuddyer was hit by a pitch. Gardenhire, earning his first ejection of the season and 42nd of his career, said he was convinced Cuddyer was hit based on the right fielder's reaction.
"Michael would never do that," Cuddyer said. "He wants to hit. ... I just told (Nauert), 'There's no way Cuddyer reacts like that if he didn't get hit.'"
--RHP Jesse Crain's balk in the 13th inning Wednesday allowed Curtis Granderson to score the go-ahead run for Detroit, and manager Ron Gardenhire said the umpires certainly got the call right. When Granderson broke from third before Crain went into his delivery, the reliever was thrown off, Gardenhire said, and went straight into his motion after stepping on the pitching rubber rather than taking the required pause.
--The Twins are errorless in their past seven contests through Thursday. Their 13 errors are the fewest in the American League, and their team fielding percentage is the AL's best.
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.
