Twins Gopher Broke, Rout Tigers, 21-7

With the way the runs were piling up in the Minnesota Twins’ 21-7 victory, Detroit Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson wasn’t sure what sport he was watching Saturday.

“It was the University of Minnesota against the University of Michigan playing a practice football game,” Anderson said afterward.

With Twin sluggers Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield getting a day off, Pedro Munoz homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs as the Twins tied team records for runs and hits.

Alex Cole had four of the Twins’ 24 hits. Scott Leius, who homered, and Derek Parks and Munoz each had three hits for Minnesota. Chip Hale added a two-run homer in the ninth.

The Twins’ 21 runs tied the mark set on May 20 against Boston. The 24 hits matched the club record set on May 25, 1977, against Boston.

“We hit some balls good and we hit some into the holes,” Twin Manager Tom Kelly said. “It turned a little ugly the last three or four innings when we couldn’t catch popups or ground balls. I don’t know whether we lost concentration or what, but it’s hard to criticize anything when you score 21 runs.”

The Twins won despite making five errors. Detroit had not given up so many runs and hits since Kansas City scored 21 runs and had 24 hits on June 15, 1976.

Although the final score was reminiscent of old Lion-Viking games at Tiger Stadium--the NFL used the park through 1974--Anderson said it could have been worse.

“In the seventh, I thought I’d see something I’d never seen before--a team get to 30 hits,” he said. “They were at 22 and there were no outs. That’s a frightening feeling.

“When it got to 13-0 I said, ‘Get this over as fast as you can and please don’t let anyone get hurt.’ ”

Munoz had a two-run single during a six-run second inning and hit a three-run homer as the Twins scored six times in the third for the 13-0 lead. Munoz added a sacrifice fly in the fifth and led off the seventh with his third homer of the year.

Munoz said he hoped his performance would earn him more playing time. He came into the afternoon with only one homer and six RBIs in 29 games.

“I’ve been sitting on the bench a lot, which is new to me,” he said. “I never played platoon before, and it’s something I have to get used to. When you play every day, you feel more comfortable. You have your timing down.

“Today I showed I can hit, but in my mind, there never was a question.”

Juan Samuel homered, tripled twice and drove in three runs for Detroit.