CHICAGO � The depth and versatility the Twins have thrived on was tested this week against the White Sox. And, like most times this season, the Twins came up aces.
With Miguel Sano, Max Kepler and Marwin Gonzalez on the bench Thursday with injuries, the Twins hammered Chicago 10-5 to complete a sweep of their three-games series while setting a major league record for most home runs on the road.
Jake Cave homered twice for the Twins, and Jose Berrios got through six innings to improve to 11-7.
First, the Twins singled their way to a 6-0 lead through two innings, none of their hits going for extra bases. Two-run singles by C.J. Cron and Nelson Cruz highlighted the scoring spree. But this has been the Summer of Swat for this Twins team, and bigger blows were coming.
Cave led off the third inning with an opposite field home run to give the Twins a 7-0 lead. It was their 139th home run hit on the road this season, a major league record. Cron followed with a home run to center, the 11th time the Twins have hit back-to-back homers.
The Twins broke the road home run record set by the 2001 San Francisco Giants, a team with just three players with more than 20 home runs _ Jeff Kent with 22, Rich Aurilia with 37 and Barry Bonds with a record 73. The Twins have seven players with at least 20 home runs, tied for the most in a season, and Jorge Polanco has 19.
The milestones will continue come, as the Twins now are just six homers shy of the major league record of 267 homers in a season, set by the Yankees last year. The milestones will be celebrated, but not at the expense of their grand plans.
"Any time you can break a record in baseball, the game has been around for a long time," Twins General Manager Thad Levine said. "You take it very seriously and it's an honor for these guys to be a part of that. But at the same time, there's a team goal that really transcends those types of achievements."
So the Twins remain committed to the grind. That means winning games without key players. Sano had a sore right forearm as well as an upset stomach on Thursday, but was available off the bench. Kepler has a sore right knee, but tested before the game and could have been used if needed. Gonzalez had an MRI on his abdominal strain on Wednesday that came back clean, and Levine believed he could return to action in a couple of days. And Byron Buxton remains on the injured list with a sore left shoulder.
That didn't slow down the offense on Thursday, which knocked out White Sox righthander Dylan Cease in the third inning with a 10-hit attack. Four of their hits went to the opposite field. They added a sacrifice fly by Luis Arraez in the fifth before Cave hit his second homer of the game, a solo shot to right in the seventh.
Berrios, who entered the game with an 8.44 ERA in August, held Chicago to three runs over six innings on seven hits and two walks with eight strikeouts. His four-seam fastball averaged 92.1 miles per hour, down from 93.6 at the beginning of the month. But he mixed in his two-seam fastball, curveball and changeup almost equally to open with four shutout innings before Chicago scored twice in the fifth. Berrios did throw four wild pitches. So he's not back to his old self, but at least he has a jumping off point.
Fortunately for Berrios, the Twins offense was at full throttle on Thursday, even if they weren't at full strength.
"It's never a question of whether or not you're gonna need depth," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "It's a question of when you do run into those difficult periods, how you're set up to handle it."
Randy Dobnak pitched the final three innings for the Twins, who start a four-game series in Detroit on Friday night.
