Twins bash their way to record books with 5 HRs
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CHICAGO -- Going into Thursday’s game vs. the White Sox, the Twins led MLB with 194 home runs on the season, and they extended their already wide margin in a 10-3 win over Chicago at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Minnesota entered the record books with five in the blowout win, becoming the first team in Major League history to have nine games of five-plus homers. The 1977 Boston Red Sox held the previous record, with eight.
“It never gets old, but our guys take it in stride and generally don’t change their approach to their at-bats,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You never know if you’re ever going to do that again, but I would assume that we’ll see some good quality at-bats and some good hard-hit balls from our guys going forward.”
The record came on homers by Max Kepler, who hit his team-leading 26th of the season; Miguel Sanó, who hit his 17th; and three off the bat of Nelson Cruz, who delivered the first three-homer game of his career.
“It's not easy,” Cruz said, who finished the night with five RBIs and three runs scored. “To hit three is a blessing.”
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“We were talking on the bench -- a guy like Nelson Cruz doesn’t have to change his approach to try to hit a ball over the fence. He’s a very good hitter,” Baldelli said. “He’s a gifted hitter who just happens to be a strong individual, and when he hits the ball on the barrel and puts a good swing on it, an under control good quality swing, it has a chance to leave the yard, and not by a little bit. I don’t think he ever really changes what he’s doing for the moment or for a situation like that. He always has a chance to go deep.”
Cruz’s heroics put an exclamation point on what has been an unbelievable power display by the Twins through 102 games. Minnesota leads the Majors with 199 home runs and will continue to break records as the season continues.
The team is just 26 homers shy of the club record of 225, set in 1963. Not only are the Twins on pace to shatter that record, they may even threaten the Yankees’ Major League-record 264 home runs of last season.