MINNEAPOLIS _ Ervin Santana, baseball's most dominant starter entering Sunday, gave up a home run to the second batter he faced.
Then the Red Sox kept blasting pitches all over the Target Field until they had a 17-6 victory over the Twins. Boston turned a nail biter into a romp with 10 runs in the ninth inning.
Santana lasted six innings on Sunday but gave up four home runs, tying a career high that has happened two other times.
It wasn't until the fourth and final home run off Santana, a two run shot by Sandy Leon in the sixth, did the Red Sox ahead to stay. They added a run in the eighth to make it 7-4 before the Twins scored twice in the bottom of the inning to pull within 7-6.
With a runner on third and one out, Boston manager John Farrell went to close Craig Kimbrel. Joe Mauer batted for Byron Buxton. Once down 0-2, Mauer worked the count full before Kimbrel got a called strike three on a breaking ball that was a borderline strike. The usually reserved Mauer tuned to home plate umpire Dan Iassonga and complained for several seconds, the longest he's ever objected to a call.
Kimbrel then struck out pinch hitter Max Kepler on 98 mile an hour fastballs to end the inning.
Boston then put the Twins away with six runs in the ninth off of reliever Matt Belisle. Justin Haley replaced Belisle and gave up four more. Only one was unearned, due to a Miguel Sano error.
But it was a troubling sign for a bullpen that could use upgrades.
It was billed as matchup between top starters in Santana and Boston's Chris Sale, enough to attract an announced crowd of 31,763. It ended up being a battle of bullpens, as the Twins couldn't break through the Kimbrel wall while Boston went to town on Twins relievers.
In addition to dropping the series, the Twins ended up with a 3-3 homestand. They now head back out on the road for six games, where they are 7-4.
Sale is one of the game premier pitchers, but the Twins have not been impressed. Sale entered Sunday having lost six of his previous seven starts to the Twins while posting a 7.62 ERA.
Santana entered the game 4-0 with a 0.66 ERA. Sale was 2-2, 1.38. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the third time since 1982 in which starters met with an ERA below 1.40 through six starts.
Good thing it wasn't through seven starts, because the Sox got Santana early and the Twins got to Sale late.
Santana threw 23 pitches in the first inning, many of them poorly. He ran a 3-2 fastball over the middle of the plate to Dustin Pedroia, who belted it into the seats in left to open the scoring. After hitting Xander Bogaerts, Santana's 1-2 fastball to Andrew Benintendi was hit into the seats in right for a two-run home run and a 3-0 Red Sox lead.
The way Sale dominated early, it looked like the three runs would hold up. His fastball hit 97 miles per hour on the radar gun and one breaking ball eased over the plate in 78 mph.
Sale struck out seven Twins during his first trip through the batting order, including five of six batters at one point. When Mookie Betts led off the fifth with a home run, Boston's 4-0 lead looked insurmountable. But the Twins finally remembered that Sale was the guy from Chicago they used to score on.
The Twins began the fifth with Chris Gimenez walk, a bloop single by Eddie Rosario and a bunt hit by Byron Buxton. Gimenez scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1, the Robbie Grossman's walk reloaded the bases.
Then came the hardest hit ball of the inning, a single to left by Jorge Polanco that drove in two runs. Kennys Vargas added a sacrifice fly to score Polanco with the tying run.
In six innings, Sale gave up four runs on four hits and three walks. His ERA is now 7.40 over his last eight starts against the Twins.
