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  Sunday, Aug. 13 2:05pm ET
Gonzalez' career-high five RBI lead Jays
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Toronto manager Jim Fregosi isn't surprised by his team's ability to bash the ball.

That's why he was more pleased with Chris Carpenter's emergency relief stint than the Blue Jays' season-high 20 hits.

Chris Carpenter pitched 5 1/3 innings in relief of injured Frank Castillo and Alex Gonzalez homered and drove in a career-high five runs as the Blue Jays routed the Minnesota Twins 13-3 Sunday.

"(Chris) did a heckuva job," Fregosi said. "He has struggled for a major part of the season but he looked relaxed today."

Carpenter (9-10), bumped from the rotation because of his ineffectiveness, allowed just two runs and five hits after Castillo left with tightness in his forearm in the second inning.

"There has never been anything specifically wrong with him," said Toronto pitching coach Dave Stewart. "It was simply a matter of mechanics. And he is more relaxed on the mound now."

Carpenter, who earned a victory with 4 1/3 innings of shutout relief at Kansas City Aug. 10, agreed with that assessment.

"I felt better than I did the last time out," he said. "It's coming around for me."

Castillo, who had won eight straight decisions, retired the first five batters before being replaced.

"I didn't get very loose in the bullpen before the game," Castillo said. "But I thought I could work it out. When it was obvious, I couldn't, I told Jim it was better to get out now and not risk messing things up down the road."

Carlos Delgado hit his 34th homer and Brad Fullmer also went deep as Toronto raised its league leading home run total to 195.

Tony Batista had four hits, and Dave Martinez, Darrin Fletcher and Jose Cruz added three apiece as the Blue Jays salvaged the finale of a three-game series. Every starter in the lineup except Mickey Morandini had at least one hit.

"We hit right-handed pitching well," Fregosi said. "We need to keep doing that but we really need to start pitching better."

Toronto wasted no time getting to Brad Radke (8-13), who gave up seven runs and 10 hits in 2 1/3 innings -- his shortest outing of the year.

Gonzalez singled in the first and moved to third on Martinez's single. Delgado, who is tied with New York's Bernie Williams for second in the AL in RBIs with 106, hit an RBI groundout.

Jose Cruz hit an RBI double in the second inning and scored on Gonzalez's three-run homer, his 10th, making it 5-0.

Batista hit an RBI double in the third to knock out Radke and scored on a groundout by Morandini.

Delgado homered leading off the sixth against Jason Ryan. Fullmer hit his 25th home run, a two-run shot to right, in the eighth off reliever Eddie Guardado.

"Brad needs to keep the ball down to be effective," Minnesota manager Tom Kelly said. "He had a bad day. He missed with his location. It's a shame. We had a good weekend going but today wasn't meant to be."

Torii Hunter homered and drove in all three runs for Minnesota.

Game notes
The Blue Jays have had 10 hits or more in 11 of their last 12 games. ... Minnesota leads the season series, 4-2 with a three-game series set for Toronto, Aug. 18-20. Toronto has won 10 of the last 11 season series from the Twins. ... Fullmer tied the Toronto record for homers a designated hitter set by Jose Canseco in 1998. ... Minnesota catcher A.J. Pierzynski, called from Salt Lake City to replace Chad Moeller, who had surgery on a torn meniscus earlier in the day, arrived and played the final three innings.
 


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