PHOENIX (AP) — Dylan Bundy said his job was simple once it became obvious that Minnesota’s offense was going to have a big day.
Get his teammates back up to the plate as quickly as possible.
The veteran right-hander obliged with eight efficient innings while the Twins built a big advantage early, and Minnesota cruised to an 11-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night.
“Your defense doesn’t want to be sitting out there, especially when they’re itching to get back to the bat rack,” Bundy said.
The Twins jumped ahead for a 6-0 lead with their big third inning, highlighted by a mammoth two-out, two-run homer from Gary Sánchez that traveled 456 feet into the left-center seats and left his bat at over 107 mph. It was the two-time All-Star’s eighth homer of the season.
Alex Kirilloff — recently called up from Triple-A — added a two-run double. The Twins did ample offensive damage even without star slugger Byron Buxton, who had a scheduled day off.
“We made really good adjustments tonight, quickly,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s nice to see good, quality at-bats, hard-hit balls, stacking on top of each and turning into runs.”
Ryan Jeffers added a two-run homer in the seventh that pushed the score to 11-1. All of the Twins starters had at least one hit.
Bundy (4-3) retired the first 10 hitters he faced before Alek Thomas bounced a single through the middle of the infield.
It was a much-needed good outing for the veteran right-hander, who gave up four hits, struck out seven and walked none. He came into the game with a 5.87 ERA and had given up 13 earned runs over his previous 12 1/3 innings.
Bundy said he tried to keep the same approach throughout the game, even after he was staked to a big lead.
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