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Morneau's walk-off homer lifts Twins past Devil Rays

Apr 13, 2007 - 5:06 AM MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Tampa Bay Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon liked everything but the ending.

After tying up the game in the eighth inning, an embarrassing baserunning blunder in the ninth followed by a walk-off homer by Justin Morneau provided the Devil Rays with a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins.

Casey Fossum pitched seven solid innings and Tampa Bay pounded out 12 hits, but it could not overcome the ninth-inning blunder.

"A lot of good things happened tonight," Maddon said. "The end was very. ... it was a sad ending. It was not appropriate based on all the things we had done right tonight."

The ninth opened on a positive note, when Ben Zobrist singled to left off Twins closer Joe Nathan (1-0) before speedy Carl Crawford bounced a double off the right field wall.

Zobrist was given the stop sign at third base, but Crawford was running with his head down and barreled into third without even noticing Zobrist had stopped.

"He doesn't hit doubles, he hits triples," Maddon said. "He's just used to that."

"I figured (Zobrist) would score, that's why I did it," Crawford said. "That's what I get for running with my head down."

It just got worse from there.

Maddon said that both players should have remained at third base, which after a tag would have left Zobrist at third with one out. Instead, Zobrist took off for home, where the relay throw from second base easily beat him. But a moment after Zobrist left third, Crawford did as well - back to second base.

"I was caught," Crawford said. "There was no thought process."

After catcher Joe Mauer ran down Zobrist, he threw to shortstop Alexi Casilla, who easily applied the tag on Crawford.

"You won't see that happen too often," Morneau said. "Two guys on third base, then all of a sudden two guys out. We're not complaining, we'll take it."

"I've never seen it before," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It's just one of those plays where we got a break - a huge break."

The first batter of the bottom half, Morneau belted a 1-2 fastball out over the plate from Brian Stokes (0-2) just over the left field fence.

"Once I got two strikes I was just trying to put it in play and get on base somehow," Morneau said. "He left it up a little bit - I wasn't sure if I hit it too high or not - it just kept carrying. It was a pretty good feeling."

Michael Cuddyer gave the Twins a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning, when he smacked a 2-0 belt-high fastball 367 feet into the left field seats off Fossum for a 2-0 lead.

The lead looked solid behind Carlos Silva, who left after 6 2/3 scoreless innings, but the bullpen could not hold the lead. Ty Wigginton halved Tampa Bay's deficit with an eighth-inning home run on the first pitch from reliever Juan Rincon, and Carlos Pena singled in the tying run later in the frame.

Minnesota sidearmer Pat Neshek took over for Rincon and struck out Elijah Dukes and Rocco Baldelli with runners on first and third.

The two-run eighth cost Silva his first win of the season despite the fact he scattered seven hits in his outing and has not allowed a run in his last 10 2/3 innings. Still, Silva is just pleased to be pitching well after a disappointing 2006 campaign and a rough spring.

"I feel very good," Silva said. "It's a long season, we've got to keep working. I'm just going to keep working the same, doing my routine and keep focused and keep consistent." Fossum yielded just the two runs and six hits in seven frames. He struck out two without a walk.