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Baker tosses CG, Twins beat Rangers

Jun 12, 2011 - 12:07 AM Minneapolis, MN (Sports Network) - Scott Baker struck out seven in his fourth career complete game, leading the Minnesota Twins to an 8-1 victory over the Texas Rangers at Target Field.

Baker (4-4) surrendered just five hits and no walks for his first complete game since the 2009 season.

Delmon Young had three hits and two RBI and Alexi Casilla also collected three hits for the Twins, who have won two of the first three games in this four- game set.

David Murphy had an RBI single and Adrian Beltre added a double for the Rangers, who had their momentum halted after a 9-3 drubbing of Minnesota on Friday.

Colby Lewis (5-7) was hammered by the Minnesota bats, going only 1 1/3 innings and giving up six runs on seven hits.

Minnesota plated five runs in its first at-bat, and Baker cruised from there.

"You throw a handful of games and have a good game plan out there and when we score five runs in the first, that doesn't hurt either." Baker said. "A good game overall, I'm pretty happy with it."

Ben Revere and Casilla both smacked singles to lead off the first and Revere scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael Cuddyer. Casilla scored on a wild pitch by Lewis and Brian Dinkelman laced a single to right to score Young and Rene Tosoni. Matt Tolbert stroked a single to right to score Danny Valencia and put the Twins ahead 5-0.

The Twins added to their lead in the second. Casilla doubled to deep right and scampered home on a single by Young to make it 6-0.

Minnesota extended its lead again in the fourth on a manufactured run by Revere, who singled to lead off the inning, then stole second and scored on a single by Casilla to push the Twins lead to 7-0.

The Twins tacked on yet another run in the seventh. Cuddyer doubled to left to lead off the inning and Young followed with a double off Rangers reliever Yoshinori Tateyama to extend their lead to 8-0.

Texas finally got on the board in the eighth by mounting a two-out rally. Mike Napoli laced a single to center and advanced to second on defensive indifference. Murphy followed with a single to right to score Napoli.

Prior to Saturday's game, the Rangers activated Ian Kinsler from the paternity list. He went 1-for-4 with a single in the ninth inning, but he noted that Baker was dominant on Saturday.

"He threw a good game out there." Kinsler said. "We expect a lot more out of ourselves offensively against anyone, but we're not going to take credit away from what he did today."

Game Notes

Minnesota owns an 8-16 mark at home this season and is 7-8 against AL West opponents...Minnesota is 8-1 against Texas all-time at Target Field...Michael Young got the day off for the Rangers, he is one game shy of the franchise record for games played, currently held by Rafael Palmeiro...Rangers pitcher Dave Bush left the game in the seventh inning with a leg injury.