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Hunter hits grand slam; Boonser has career day in Twins' win

May 19, 2007 - 5:50 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Torii Hunter and Boof Bonser did their best to help the Minnesota Twins get back to having fun.

Hunter hit his eighth career grand slam in a five-run third inning and Bonser set a career high with 11 strikeouts as the Twins posted an 8-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of their interleague series on Friday.

The outburst was a welcome sight for the Twins. During its three-game sweep against Cleveland, Minnesota managed just a total of eight runs. Overall the Twins have lost 11 of their last 14 games.

"You've got to have fun in this game," Hunter said. "It hadn't been fun the last couple days, the last couple weeks actually. Today, it seemed like we had a little more fun."

Hunter provided more than enough support for Bonser (2-1). The six-time Gold Glove Award winner helped the Twins break out of their offensive rut by taking advantage of an uncharacteristically wild Chris Capuano (5-2), who came into the game with just 15 walks in 43 innings. The lefthander walked three during a five-run third inning for the Minnesota.

"Clutch hitting, good eyes," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "That's what we need more of, two-out hitting. And Torii put one in the seats.

With two outs, Capuano walked Luis Castillo and then surrendered an RBI triple to Cirillo. Coming off his first loss of the season, Capuano then walked Michael Cuddyer and reigning American League MVP Justin Morneau.

Hunter, sensing that Capuano would try to get ahead on him, blasted the first pitch into the left field seats for his second grand slam of the season and the eighth of his career to make it 5-1.

"My first at-bat, I couldn't see," Hunter said. "I couldn't pick up the ball at all. My next at-bat, I saw the ball real good. It was a good pitch. I looked at the tape. The slider was actually going down and in and I was able to get inside of it and hit it out of the park. I wasn't trying to. Straight accident, believe me."

Gardenhire hopes his team can use the momentum of a big inning and dominant pitching performance as a springboard.

"We've been struggling," Gardenhire said. "We're just trying to get together as a unit and play better baseball. Tonight's a good start."

Meanwhile Capuano regretted throwing a breaking ball which hung in the zone and quickly exited the park.

"I hung a first-pitch breaking ball to Torii," Capuano said. "I knew he was going to be aggressive there. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best pitch to throw, especially where I threw it. I needed to make a pitch right there to get out of the inning. It would have been a whole different game because I had pretty good stuff tonight."

Bonser won his second consecutive outing after going winless in his first seven starts this season. The righthander yielded just one run and three hits with one walk.

Bonser surpassed his previous career high of eight strikeouts, which did four times, including his major-league debut on May 21, 2006.

"I'm not trying to (strike batters out), it just happens that way," Bonser said. "All the pitches were there. The location was there. Luckily, they were missing. It's always nice to get that many runs."

Minnesota tacked on an insurance run in the sixth on Lew Ford's RBI double and added two more in the seventh on Cirillo's two-run homer.

Cirillo, whose RBI triple in the fifth was his first in six years, spent the last two seasons with Milwaukee and also played his first six years with the Brewers.

"It's mixed emotions," Cirillo said. "I had a lot of fun memories here. It was weird, to tell you the truth. It's definitely weird at this stage of my career to put on a different uniform and see the guys."

Capuano suffered through his worst start of the season, allowing six runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings to drop his second straight decision.

Rickie Weeks sat out his second straight game with a sore right wrist for Milwaukee, which managed just three hits.

Bill Hall drove in the lone run for Milwaukee, which has lost six of eight after winning a season-high six in a row.

"We're not swinging the bats real well right now," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "We can turn it around on any given day. We might be pressing right now, I don't know, but we're definitely not swinging the bats the way we can."