Late night: Twins 13, Angels 5

Danny Valencia receives congratulations in the dugout
after scoring a run in the fourth inning.

Box score here

Game story here

In last Monday's print column, I made reference to how many triples the Twins had allowed this year, citing that as evidence of the flawed outfield defense.

The Twins won Friday night in Anaheim despite allowing three more three-baggers. Three triples allowed in a game is a lot. We can divvy up the responsibility three ways:

• Michael Cuddyer misplayed the first off the right field wall (falling down in the process).
• The second, to right-center, became a triple in part because Ben Revere doesn't have a quality arm in center field.
• The third went to left-center, and Rene Tosoni was the outfielder who couldn't hold Erik Aybar to two bases.

The first, I think, should have been limited to two bases. The other two might have been ... if Revere could throw, or if Tosoni had cut the ball off.

This is a sort of hidden effect of outfield range, the ability (or inability) of outfielders to limit base hits to singles or doubles. Revere has great range, but we've seen several examples of teams taking bases they wouldn't consider taking on other outfielders.

Obviously, those triples didn't stop the Twins from winning. They did make life a bit rougher on Carl Pavano, but it also has to be noted that the Angels outfield defense -- which boasts a pair of multi-Gold Glove winners in Torii Hunter and Vernon Wells -- did their pitchers no favors either.

Hunter was charged with an error  in the fourth inning, and Wells should have been on the following at-bat (Luke Hughes was credited with a double instead). And center fielder Peter Bourjos failed to hang on to a Trevor Plouffe drive to the wall in the sixth inning; that was also scored as a hit.

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Tragic number: Eight.