Rosario stars as Twins beat Cards 3-1

Twins rookie left fielder Eddie Rosario, tripled, singled, scored and had an outfield assist to help lead the Twins to a 3-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday night at Target Field. Tommy Milone and Glen Perkins combined to hold the NL leading Cardinals to just one run.

Twins Notes:

THE TWINS defeated the Cardinals tonight and have won three of the last four games at home against St. Louis (previous coming in three game set July 16-18, 2000)…they are now 21-12 at home this season, 9-13 in series openers, 5-11 in June and 4-4 against the National League…despite a 9-12 record all-time against St. Louis, the Twins are now 5-2 all-time vs. STL at home…the Twins turned a double play in the fifth inning and have turned 10 in their last five games…in fact, they have at least one double play in 11 of their last 12 games and were tied with Colorado for third most in MLB in ground ball double plays coming into today…the Twins have not committed an error in six straight games, the longest streak since July 6-18, 2014 (9 straight).

1. TOMMY MILONE allowed one run on five hits and no walks while striking out five in 7.0 innings…in his last two starts has posted a 1.93 ERA (14.0 IP, 3 ER) with one walk, eight hits and 13 strikeouts…he has tossed at least 7.0 innings in three of his seven starts this season…tonight snapped a streak of five straight starts allowing a home run…all three of his starts of at least 6.0 innings this season have been quality starts…Milone improves to 7-1 in 11 Interleague starts, posting a 4.41 ERA (65.1 IP, 32 ER) in those 11.

2. TREVOR PLOUFFE (1-for-4) hit his 14th double of the season in the fourth inning…he has 113 doubles since 2011 and trails only Dozier (37) with 25 extra-base hits this season among Twins…he has scored in three of his last four games and 27 times this season, third on the Twins.

3. EDUARDO NUNEZ (2-for-2) has a hit in each of his last six starts, batting .409 (9-for-22) with four doubles, a triple, three RBI and three runs in those six games…hit his ninth double of the season tonight, the most in a single-season since he had 17 doubles in 2013.

4. JOE MAUER (1-for-4) hit his 13th double of the season and 322nd of his career tonight, and is now seven shy of tying Tony Oliva (329) for second on the Twins all-time doubles list.

5. EDDIE ROSARIO (2-for-4) hit his first career triple in the eighth inning…it was his ninth extra-base hit in his 32nd game…he has six extra-base hits in his last 10 games…Rosario caught Yadier Molina attempting to take second on a single in the seventh inning…it was his fourth outfield assist on the season, tied for most on the Twins (Hicks and Escobar) and second most among MLB rookie outfielders (Souza – 6).

6. GLEN PERKINS converted his major league leading 23rd save of the season in his 23rd opportunity…it was his third four-out save of the season and sixth of his career (7 opportunities)…the 23 straight saves is the longest streak to start a season since Huston Street saved 23 straight in 2014.