You can’t keep a good Twins team down too long

MILWAUKEE — For a time Thursday, the Twins were very good in two of baseball’s three basic categories. Later, they were very good in all three.

These were the hoped-for Twins in an 8-1 victory over the Brewers looking much more like their better selves than their 5-11 record.

Pitching and defense were fine for the Twins throughout this game. Their offense, which had been dwelling in the desert for the first nine games of the season, emerged fully later in the day, scoring five runs over the last three innings.

Ricky Nolasco gave the Twins 6 1/3 fine innings, giving up one run on five hits with one walk and seven strikeouts, to pick up his first win. Now in the third year of a four-year contract, with a 2.66 ERA over his first three starts, he appears to be the pitcher the Twins hoped he would be in the first place.

And the Twins played errorless baseball in the field, occasionally stellar, errorless baseball. Second baseman Brian Dozier turned a screamer up the middle from Scooter Gennett into a groundout with a diving stop in the third; shortstop Eduardo Escobar made a diving catch of a liner hit by Aaron Hill in the seventh.

It was interesting that after Oswaldo Arcia hit a 445-foot, two-run home run Wednesday night, he was not in the Twins’ lineup Thursday. But to say that he had a bad evening defensively in left on Wednesday night would risk only understatement.

So Thursday, Eddie Rosario moved from center to left and the multitalented Byron Buxton started in center. This was a better defensive outfield than the one with Arcia in it, even though this one had less power potential. But …

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