MILWAUKEE _ Four-game winning streaks and four-game losing streaks had become the standard deviation for these Minnesota Twins. They have avoided getting really hot or really cold all season long.
Is it a good habit or bad habit? Whatever you think it is, the Twins broke that habit on Thursday.
Behind some early offense and solid bullpen work, the Twins turned back the Milwaukee Brewers 7-2 at Miller Park. They won both games in Milwaukee and all four in their interleague series this week and have a season-high five-game winning streak.
Lefthander Dietrich Enns did not make it out of the third inning in his major league debut, but righthanders Alan Busenitz and Ryan Pressly combined for 42/3 scoreless innings. And the Twins batters produced an early 6-1 lead, which thrilled the thousands of Twins fans among the announced crowd of 33,904.
Jorge Polanco went 2-for-4 on Thursday to increase his hitting streak to eight games. He is batting .500 (14-for-28) during his run. Joe Mauer and Byron Buxton each had three hits.
While the Twins rallied for both wins over the Brewers at Target Field this week, they struck first in both games at Miller Park. Milwaukee righthander Zack Davies, 6-1 with a 2.38 ERA over his previous eight starts, did little to stop them.
Four straight hits and an error in the second allowed the Twins to take a 3-0 lead. Buxton and Polanco each had RBI singles, and a run scored when Travis Shaw misplayed Jason Castro's grounder.
Keon Broxton hit a high breaking ball from Enns out to right in the bottom of the inning to get the Brewers on the board. But the Twins weren't done.
They scored three more runs in the third on sacrifice flies by Eddie Rosario and Castro around another Buxton RBI single. The Twins led 6-1, a nice cushion for the newcomer.
Enns showed one good trait, his proclivity to throw strike one. He started 13 of the 14 batters he faced with a first-pitch strike, which can make things easier for a debutant. It should work for him until hitters become aggressive against him early in the count. But for an unfamiliar lefty, it worked on Thursday.
But he has to work on putting hitters away. He stranded one runner on base in the first inning, then two in the second. And it continued into the third, which ended up being his last inning and his undoing.
He fielded Orlando Arcia's swinging bunt, but his high throw pulled Mauer off the bag for an error. Ryan Braun hit the next pitch for a single, then Shaw dropped a single in front of Rosario in left to load the bases.
And then Enns fell behind Jesus Aguilar 2-0, the only batter to whom he didn't throw strike one. Enns came back to even the count at 2-2. But, on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Enns missed inside with a fastball, forcing in a run that made it 6-2.
Twins manager Paul Molitor didn't waste time. He removed Enns for Alan Busenitz, who got Manny Pina to hit into a double play to end the inning. Enns threw 53 pitches, 37 for strikes, which should get him another start.
Busenitz got through the fifth.
Mauer's RBI single in the sixth scored Castro give the Twins a 7-2 lead as the game headed into the late innings.
