DETROIT, April 25 -- Matt Lawton and Ron Coomer had two RBI each and LaTroy Hawkins struck out a career-high 10 batters in six innings Thursday to spark the Minnesota Twins to a 11-1 drubbing of the Detroit Tigers. Scott Stahoviak homered for the the Twins, who have won three straight and completed a two-game sweep of the Tigers. Minnesota has scored 65 runs against Detroit this season, including 10 or more in the last three meetings. Hawkins (1-0), who was making his third start, allowed one run and three hits and walked two. He was pressed into the start Thursday after the Twins used Jose Parra during their 24-11 rout on Wednesday. Travis Fryman, who celebrated his 27th birthday, accounted for the Tigers' lone run with a homer in the first inning for Detroit, which has lost eight straight games and has allowed 47 runs in its last four games. Minnesota picked up where it left off on Wednesday with two runs in the first inning. Pat Meares was hit by a pitch and Paul Molitor walked. Coomer then stroked a single to right field scoring both runners. Fryman's sixth homer cut the deficit to 2-1, but the Twins scored three times in the third when Roberto Kelly and Chuck Knoblauch had run- scoring singles. Hawkins settled down after the homer and retired 16 of the final 19 batters he faced, including the last 11. He struck out the side in the second and third innings.
Greg Hansell walked two and fanned one over the final three innings to record his first save. The Twins added single runs in the fifth, seventh and eighth and clsoed the game with three in the ninth. Mike Durant scored on a wild pitch and Meares had a sacrifice fly. Jeff Reboulet doubled in the final run. Scott Aldred (0-2) went 5 2/3 innings and took the loss. He allowed six runs, seven hits, walked five and struck out six. Kelly finished 3-for-5 for Minnesota, which had 15 hits and has recorded 34 in the last two games. Knoblauch, Stahoviak and Durant had two hits apiece. Alan Trammell had a base hit in the third inning, extending his hitting streak to 12 games.
