MINNEAPOLIS _ The Twins landed a nine-run punch in the first inning on Sunday and cruised to a 12-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks to complete a three-game sweep of the weekend interleague series at Target Field.
Eddie Rosario (grand slam), Chris Gimenez and Brian Dozier each homered as the Twins won their fourth consecutive game and 11th in their past 14.
It enabled right-hander Bartolo Colon to improve to 5-10 on the season. Colon beat the Diamondbacks for the first time in five tries and now has at least one victory against every team in the majors. He is the 18th pitcher to do so.
Twins manager Paul Molitor didn't have an injured Miguel Sano and stuck to his routine of sitting Joe Mauer on day games following a night game. That led to a batting order with Byron Buxton batting in the No. 3 spot for the fourth time in his career.
And it clicked immediately.
Buxton drove in Dozier with a single, which was the first of six straight Twins hitters to reach base. Jorge Polanco drove in Buxton with a single to make it 2-0.
Max Kepler, 2 for his last 25 against left-handed pitchers, fouled off six straight pitches, checked his swing on a seventh then pounded the next pitch by center fielder A.J. Pollack for a two-run double to make it 4-0. Gimenez's RBI single made it 5-0.
That was all for starter T.J. McFarlane. But he walked Brian Dozier to load the bases for Rosario, who hit a towering blast an estimated 406 feet for a grand slam. It was the third time the Twins have scored nine runs in the first inning, and the first time since Aug. 22, 2014. It made for a long first inning, 55 minutes, actually, as pitchers for both teams combined to throw 81 pitches.
Colon threw 29 of those, and he worked through a scoreless inning. The Twins added a run in the fifth to make it 10-0, so it was easy for Colon to put the ball over the plate. He lasted six innings, giving up four runs. Three runs came on solo homers by J.D. Martinez, Brandon Drury and Jake Lamb.
This allowed the Twins to hold on to the second wild card in the American League _ and they are blowing into the Windy City with their offense at full throttle.
They began the day having won 10 of their last 13 games with an offense that was first in the AL in batting average during that period and second in the league in runs scored, hits, RBI and on base percentage. They will face a White Sox team that has traded most of it veterans for prospects, leaving a team that has sunk to the second worst record in baseball.
Chicago is ripe for the picking _ and eight of the Twins next 11 games are against them. It's an opportunity for the Twins to build their wild card credibility.
Both benches were warned in the sixth inning when reliever Ryan Pressly's first pitch to Adam Rosales nearly hit him. It came after Gimenez was hit in the previous inning. Arizona manager Torey Lovullo cane out to argue and was ejected from the game.
That meant that former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, the bench coach at Arizona, was back managing against his former team.
