An old-fashioned beatdown

The hitting was good, Sidney Ponson was very good (really), and that was a pretty good combination for the Twins en route to a 9-1 beatdown of the DRays.

Ponson turned in easily his best performance of the year in a start in which he probably had to do well to keep his spot in the rotation. He threw 7 innings, allowing only 5 hits and 2 BB while striking out 5, allowing 1 run. Sure, that only lowers the ERA to 6.67, but this had to be really encouraging. If he can make a few more starts like this, they can delay starting the clock for some of those young guys even longer.

On the hitting side, there were lots of positives. Joe Mauer continued his hot streak with 3 more hits to boost the average .378. Torii Hunter only had 1 hit, but it was yet another double, his 14th of the year. Jason Tyner had 3 hits. Luis Castillo had 3 hits in his return to the lineup. There were lots of hitting starts for the Twins.

On Wednesday, Boof will get the start for the Twins, hoping Tampa has the same effect for him that it did for Sidney. He'll take on Jae Seo, he of a 9.51 ERA this year.