DETROIT _ By the middle innings on Sunday, the Twins were in the Tigers bullpen and on their way to their latest convincing victory.
And Detroit's Miguel Cabrera, one of the game's greatest strike zone critics, was letting home plate umpire Brian O'Nora have it so extensively that his manager Ron Gardenhire _ the active leader in ejections _ was on the verge of sacrificing himself to O'Nora in order to keep Cabrera from being tossed.
Except for ejections, the Twins have frustrated teams all season by amassing long drives and forcing them to play reliever roulette. Their emphatic 12-2 victory over the Tigers on Sunday was no different. Four more home runs on top of their league-leading total. Eight more extra base hits, on top of their league-leading total. And they took two of three against the Tigers to finish their 10-game road trip with a 6-4 record. It was the seventh time the Twins have reached double digit runs in a game.
The trip began well and ended well. The one hiccup was two of three losses in Cleveland. But a late-inning bullpen collapse on Wednesday against the Indians kept them from winning that series too. They now head home for a nine-game homestand after taking care of business.
Right-hander Jake Odorizzi walked the first batter he faced Sunday. Sure enough, that batter, Niko Goodrum, scored on a double play grounder to end Odorizzi's scoreless inning streak at 161/3. But Odorizzi picked it up from there, and then some, as he stifled the Tigers on his way to his ninth win of the season, pulling him into a tie for the Major League lead. In six innings, Odorizzi gave up one run on five hits and that leadoff walk while striking out eight. He has an 0.40 ERA over his last four starts with 32 strikeouts over 22 1/3 innings.
Once again, he did it with a 92-95 miles per hour fastball that Detroit could not handle. He attacked the top of the strike zone all afternoon, but his opponents failed to square him up, over and over again. Of the 99 pitches he threw on Sunday, 71 were fastballs.
He had no problems with O'Nora's strike zone on Sunday. And neither did his teammates.
Jorge Polanco led off the first with a single and came around to score on Mitch Garver's double. Nelson Cruz fell behind 0-2 against Tigers left-hander Ryan Carpenter but, nine pitches later, Cruz was still alive. Carpenter threw him a 91 mph fastball, and Cruz bashed it over the left field fence for a two-run home run, his 11th homer of the season. The Twins led 3-0 _ with more on the way.
Then the Twins buried the Tigers with a five-run fourth inning as ten men went to the plate. Miguel Sano began the inning with an opposite field home run. C. J. Cron ended it with a two-run double. In between, Jorge Polanco hit a sacrifice fly and Eddie Rosario added an RBI single.
After the Twins scored a run in the fifth, Byron Buxton smashed a two-run homer to left center in the sixth as the Twins took an 11-1 lead. Eddie Rosario then planted a no-doubter into the right field seats in the seventh. That gave the Twins 125 home runs on the season, tying the club record for most home runs before the All-Star break.
And the All-Star break isn't for another 29 days.
With nine wins, Odorizzi is the ninth Twins pitcher to have nine wins through the first 64 games of a season. The others: Camillo Pasqual (twice), Dean Chance, Jim Perry (twice), Jim Kaat, Bert Blyleven, Frank Viola, Scott Erickson and Kevin Slowey.
