Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Minnesota 12, Texas 4
When: 4:10 PM ET, Saturday, September 4, 2010
Where: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Temperature: 67°
Umpires: Home - Alfonso Marquez, 1B - Tim Timmons, 2B - Tim Tschida, 3B - Bob Davidson
Attendance: 40496

Jim Thome homered twice and Matt Tolbert drove in a career-high five runs as the Minnesota Twins pounded the Texas Rangers, 12-4, on Saturday.

Carl Pavano (16-10) allowed three runs in eight strong innings for the Twins, who maintained a four-game edge over the Chicago White Sox in the American League Central.

Minnesota began its assault on Texas starter Colby Lewis in the first when J.J. Hardy’s ground-rule double plated two and Tolbert’s first triple of the afternoon added three more. Thome went to work in the third, tying Mark McGwire for ninth place on the all-time home run list with a solo blast.

Thome was at it again in the fourth, ending Lewis’ day with a three-run blast that moved him past McGwire with 584 career homers and gave the Twins a commanding 9-0 lead.

Lewis (9-12) was charged with all nine runs in his worst outing of the season. The 31-year-old right-hander fell to 0-7 in his last nine starts.

Tolbert added two more RBIs in the seventh with his second triple of the day and came in to score on Rich Harden’s wild pitch.

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Texas   Minnesota
Colby Lewis Player Carl Pavano
Loss W/L Win
3.2 IP 8.0
2 Strikeouts 1
8 Hits 8
22.09 ERA 3.38
Hitting
Texas   Minnesota
Cristian GuzmanPlayer J.J. Hardy
2 Hits 3
0 RBI 2
0 HR 0
2 TB 4
.667 Avg .750
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Texas 10 1 15 .286 19 1 4 2 0 0
Minnesota 11 2 22 .314 18 5 11 5 0 0