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Litsch dominates Twins as Blue Jays roll

Sep 5, 2008 - 4:22 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- The Minnesota Twins' marathon road trip ended with a thud. It could have been worse.

Jesse Litsch threw a four-hitter for his second career shutout and four different players recorded two RBI each as the Toronto Blue Jays cruised to a 9-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday.

Vernon Wells and rookie Travis Snider each homered and Joe Inglett had a two-run double for Toronto, which has won five straight. Alex Rios also drove in a pair of runs for the Blue Jays, who pounded out 17 hits and broke open a close game with five runs in the eighth.

Denard Span notched a pair of hits for Minnesota (77-63), which has lost nine straight to Toronto, and is happy to be headed home. The Twins, who fell 1 1/2 games back of idle Chicago (78-61) in the American League Central, wrapped up a 14-game road trip at 5-9.

"It's a long road trip obviously everyone knows we haven't done well," Twins catcher Mike Redmond said.

"But at the end of the day we're a game-and-a-half out. We went in a half-game out, so we lost a game in 15 days. In my mind that is a pretty good trip, even though we had opportunities to win a lot of games."

"I think we are all pressing a little but we know that we are still going to have the White Sox at home," said righthander Kevin Slowey, who allowed three runs and 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

"We are not looking past the other games. It's going to come down to the last couple of weeks. We are a game-and-a-half back now. We have our work cut out for us."

Minnesota may have been tired from the long trek, as Litsch cruised, retiring 15 of the last 16 hitters The righthander, who had lost four of his last five decisions, struck out three and walked two while throwing 78 of 115 pitches for strikes.

Both of his shutouts have come this season.

"I might be a different pitcher now," said Litsch, who is 2-1 with a 0.94 ERA in four starts since being recalled from Class AAA Syracuse on August 14.

"I've got a lot more movement on the ball, which gives me a little more leeway on my cutter. I feel I'm in the zone a lot more than I was earlier."

He received plenty of support.

The 14th overall pick of the 2006 draft, Snider belted his first career home run off Kevin Slowey (11-9) to center in the fifth to give Toronto a 2-0 lead. The lefthanded slugger then ripped a two-out, RBI single to center in the sixth to make it a three-run game. Wells' homer - his 16th - made it 4-0.

"I got a first pitch fastball out over the plate," the 20-year-old Snider said.

"I was able to put a good swing on it. My approach going into today was to get the heater up and over the plate. I knew he was going to try and stay away and I was able to get it out to the middle of the field.

Inglett and Rios each roped two-run doubles in the five run eighth.