MINNEAPOLIS -- When discussing this weekend's meeting with their archrival Chicago White Sox this week, the Twins spoke softly. In the series opener Friday, they carried a very big stick.
Although there is enough dislike between the two clubs to start a small war, Minnesota's players avoided lobbing any pointed remarks toward the White Sox. But they had no trouble beating Chicago's pitchers around with an 18-3 pounding before 22,233 fans at the Metrodome.
"It was one of those nights where everything good happened for us," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.
Bobby Kielty led the Twins’ offensive juggernaut with a three-run home run and a five-RBI night. Torii Hunter emerged from a 4-for-27 slump to crush a three-run homer of his own and had four RBIs.
"I've been left out for a couple of games," Hunter said. "Just to be apart of that felt good."
Twins starter Brad Radke (5-3) won his fourth straight start and had his first quality outing at home this season. Radke gave up three runs on nine hits with three strikeouts over seven innings.
In the last four wins, the Twins offense has averaged 10.5 runs of support for Radke.
"It makes my job a lot easier when we score some runs," Radke said.
White Sox starter Mark Buehrle (2-7) was on the hook for 10 runs, nine earned, over 3 1/3 innings. The southpaw has been the loser of his last six games.
After losing a sloppy game against the division-leading Royals in a 14-inning marathon Thursday, the Twins returned with vim and vigor Friday. It was important for the club to have renewed energy against another AL Central rival.
"To come back here and have a game like this was a lot of fun," Kielty said. "Everyone was enjoying themselves. Everyone was getting hits, and the pitching staff did well. It was a fun game for everybody."
"Coming back like that against a very good baseball team says a lot," Gardenhire said. "We could have laid down here and struggled again after a long ballgame and a tough loss. But we came back out with a lot of motivation."
Facing the team that took two of three from Minnesota in a heated series last month could have played a part too. Those games were filled with beanballs and a bench-clearing incident, but there were no such issues Friday.
"We have a good history with those guys," Gardenhire said. "There have been a lot of good battles and good baseball games. We know it's very competitive between the two teams and maybe that does help a little bit."
Minnesota was down 2-0 after the top half of the second inning, but answered back with 15 straight runs before Chicago got its third run on Jose Valentin's seventh-inning homer.
Chicago was leading 2-1 in the third inning when Kielty boosted Minnesota with a three-run homer to left-center field off Buehrle.
The Twins set up their knockout fourth inning with a flurry of small jabs against Buehrle. A.J. Pierzynski was on first base with a single when Denny Hocking laid a bunt that scooted all the way up the third-base line for a hit. Luis Rivas followed with a bunt and reached safely on an error by third baseman Joe Crede. The bases were loaded for Cristian Guzman, who tapped a broken-bat grounder between first and second that squeaked past the running Rivas for two-run infield single.
Doug Mientkiewicz was the sixth straight batter to reach base in the inning when he drew a walk. After Koskie flew out, Kielty ripped a two-run single to left field that gave him five RBIs, a career high.
Reliever Rick White took over for Buehrle, but it only got worse for Chicago. Hunter took White's 3-1 pitch the other way for a three-run homer to right field, extending the lead to 11-2. The seven-run inning tied a season high.
The score was 15-3 when late defensive replacement Tom Prince hit a solo homer to the left-field corner. Mientkiewicz then capped Minnesota's biggest offensive output of the season with a two-run homer to right field.
The Twins cranked out a season-high 20 hits and batted around twice in a game for the second time in 2003. Every starter had at least one hit, with Pierzynski tying a career best with a 4-for-4 game.
"It's nice to have a night where you can sit back and relax a little bit," Gardenhire said. "Tonight, we finally had that."
Hunter felt the blowout over Chicago was nice, but it still counted as just one win. It also means the fun and relaxation afforded by Friday's big early lead and win is over.
"Tomorrow, you have to try to turn it over and carry it over to the next day," Hunter said. "That's the hard part, trying to carry it over to the next day.
"Easy to say, tough to do."