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Sports

Twins try to break the brooms out on Rays

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

(SportsNetwork.com) - The Minnesota Twins go for the sweep on Sunday as they close out a three-game series versus the Tampa Bay Rays at Target Field.

The Twins, winners of 11 of their 15 games during the month of May, are coming off a 6-4 triumph on Saturday.

An impressive 14-5 in their own building this season, the Twins were paced by Eduardo Escobar who finished 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a run scored in the triumph. After celebrating his birthday on Friday with a home run, Brian Dozier was at it again for the home team as he went deep for his sixth homer of the campaign. Danny Santana plated a pair and Torii Hunter posted a pair of hits as well for Minnesota.

Starting pitcher Trevor May failed to factor into the decision even though he gave up just three runs on seven hits and fanned three in 6 2/3 innings. Instead, it was Brian Duensing who logged his first win by throwing just a single pitch to close out the seventh. Glen Perkins came away with his 13th save.

"Trevor had a good day," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "He bounced back after his last start. His fastball was good and his curveball was sharp."

Tampa Bay starter Alex Colome was knocked around a bit in his 3 1/3 innings, surrendering three runs on six hits and a walk without the benefit of a single strikeout. Reliever Kevin Jepsen absorbed the loss after giving up two runs on two hits and a walk in less than an inning of work.

Logan Forsythe and Tim Beckham both hit home runs and knocked in a pair for the visitors, who are now two games behind the New York Yankees for first in the AL East.

Despite sporting a favorable 2.59 ERA to this point in the campaign, Tampa Bay's Chris Archer is still a game below .500 as he heads to the hill on Sunday.

The right-hander hasn't notched a win since April 26, although the team did win his most recent outing against the New York Yankees on Tuesday by a score of 4-2. In that meeting Archer gave up only two runs on seven hits and a walk over seven innings. He struck out eight but failed to reap the rewards of his effort.

From a career standpoint, Archer has a record of 3-0 versus Minnesota with a remarkable 0.49 ERA over the course of 18 1/3 innings.

Countering for the Twins will be Kyle Gibson who also has a strong ERA at 2.70, even though he has issued almost as many walks (15) as he has strikeouts (17).

The right-hander from the University of Missouri has won two of his last four outings, but the other two have met with no decisions. One of those took place earlier this week when he gave up one run on five hits and fanned six over seven innings in what turned out to be a 2-1 loss at Detroit.

Unfortunately for Gibson, he has struggled quite a bit in his brief career against Tampa Bay, sporting a 0-3 record with a hefty 9.98 ERA in three all- time meetings.