Sports

AL: Twins nip A's, snap two streaks

Associated Press
Published August 4, 2005

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MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota finally mustered some momentum, enough to slow even streaking Oakland.

Lew Ford's triple scored Justin Morneau in the ninth inning, lifting the Twins past the Athletics 4-3 on Wednesday to end Minnesota's six-game skid and Oakland's six-game winning streak.

"It was huge," said Michael Cuddyer, who homered twice. "By the way we celebrated on the field, it was about like we won the World Series."

That's what happens when a team has scored 70 since the All-Star break, second fewest in the league, and won three of 13 games. But Morneau drew a walk with two outs against Justin Duchscherer, setting up the late drama.

Ford's line drive caromed off the wall in right, barely eluding Nick Swisher's glove. Swisher gathered himself after crashing into the padding and threw to cutoff man Mark Ellis, who fired home. Catcher Jason Kendall's tag missed Morneau, who dived headfirst wide of the plate and touched it with his left hand.

"He made a good slide," Kendall said. "I know I hit the jersey, but I don't know if it was after he touched the plate."

Joe Nathan pitched a perfect ninth for the victory, one badly needed to lift the Twins' sagging spirits.

"It was nice to see some smiles in the clubhouse for once," manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Wearing red caps with blue bills in a superstitious search for a spark, the Twins got another sterling start from Carlos Silva, who gleefully discussed a goofy, unintelligible rap song he recently recorded with teammates Johan Santana and Juan Castro.

"It's our secret weapon," Silva said. "Our team likes the song a lot. We made it just for the team."

Whatever works.

"We don't know where to go from here, but it was a nice night," said Gardenhire, whose team led the wild-card race for most of the season until the midsummer slide.

RED SOX 8, ROYALS 5: Manny Ramirez hit his league-leading 30th homer as Boston matched its season high with its seventh straight win. Kansas City fell to 0-6 on the road trip that ends this afternoon. Ramirez hit a three-run homer in the first for his major league-high 100th RBI.

The Royals took a 4-3 lead with two runs in the second and two in the fourth. The Red Sox then scored twice in the fourth and twice in the fifth, sending eight batters to the plate in each inning.

Ramirez's second three-run homer in as many games made him the seventh major-leaguer to reach 30 homers and 100 RBIs in at least eight straight seasons. The others are Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Babe Ruth and Albert Belle.

INDIANS 7, YANKEES 4: Ben Broussard homered to begin a six-run fifth against Mike Mussina and ended the rally with a run-scoring single, leading host Cleveland.

Mussina, who dominated for four innings, was 4-0 in his previous six starts against the Indians before losing to them for the first time since April 3, 2000. Cleveland has won five of six and improved to 35-1 when scoring six or more.

ANGELS 8, ORIOLES 4: Vladimir Guerrero had two run-scoring doubles, giving him 900 career RBIs, and Garret Anderson and Jose Molina hit two-run singles to lead host Los Angeles.

John Lackey improved to 3-0 in his past four starts. That stretch includes a no-decision against Toronto on July 28, when he pitched eight scoreless innings before the Angels lost 2-1 in 18.

TIGERS 10, MARINERS 7: Chris Shelton homered and drove in three, Placido Polanco added two RBIs and host Detroit snapped a five-game losing streak.

BLUE JAYS 4, WHITE SOX 3: Gregg Zaun hit a three-run double as visiting Toronto scored four in the first, then held on to win its third in a row.

[Last modified August 4, 2005, 01:24:02]