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Jenkins rallies Brewers past Twins

May 20, 2007 - 10:59 PM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Geoff Jenkins ended a personal slump and a team one for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Jenkins had three hits, including a three-run homer, and five RBI to help the Brewers avert a three-game sweep with a 6-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday.

Milwaukee ended the Twins' 12-game interleague winning streak and ended a string of five straight losses to Minnesota.

Jenkins, who was mired in a 1-for-18 slump entering the contest, went 3-for-4 with a three-run homer that tied it at 5-5 in the fifth inning and the go-ahead RBI single in the seventh.

"He's been pretty good all year but like everybody else went in a little bit of a slump the last week," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "It was Geoff Jenkins' day offensively. That's as huge as it gets right there to pick us up."

The Brewers also got a superb effort from their bullpen. Four relievers combined to allowing just one hit in five scoreless innings. Matt Wise (1-1) worked the seventh for the victory.

Closer Francisco Cordero finished with a flourish, striking out the side in the ninth for his 17th save in as many chances. It was the 150th save of his career.

"I think I did a pretty good job today," Cordero said. "Today was something special, this seems like a new beginning for us."

An ineffective Claudio Vargas lasted just four innings against Minnesota, which continued to feast on Milwaukee pitching, outscoring the Brewers, 13-3, in the first two games of the series.

A four-run third inning jump-started the Twins, with all the runs coming with two outs.

Michael Cuddyer belted a two-run shot, his fifth homer of the season, off Vargas for a 2-0 lead. Vargas unraveled from there, giving up a single to Justin Morneau and consecutive walks to Torii Hunter and Lew Ford to load the bases.

Catcher Chris Heintz, playing in just his fourth game of the season, followed with a two-run single to pad the advantage to 4-0.

"It's disappointing when you have a chance to sweep a team and you can't hold it," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We'll go out of here knowing we had that chance and couldn't get it done."

Milwaukee, which had scored just 18 runs in its previous seven games, halved the deficit in its half of the inning as J.J. Hardy doubled in Tony Gwynn and scored on Jenkins' run-scoring single.

A sacrifice fly by Morneau in the fourth increased the Twins' lead to 5-2, but the Brewers' slumbering bats finally woke up in the fifth.

Singles by Hardy and Billy Hall put runners at first and second with one out for Jenkins, who crushed a three-run homer to center field off Ramon Ortiz to tie it at 5-5.

"I tried high and inside and low and away, but when it's not going good, nothing goes good," Ortiz said. "To give up a five-run lead is unbelievable."

Jenkins came up big again in the seventh. After Prince Fielder stroked a leadoff double off reliever Dennys Reyes (0-1) and moved to third on a wild pitch, Jenkins collected his fifth RBI of the game with a single to left for a 6-5 lead.

"That was obviously a big hit and it was nice to pitch in, help out and give us a bit of a jolt," Jenkins said.

Reyes revealed after the game that he has been bothered by soreness in his pitching shoulder dating to a late April series against Kansas City. He said the shoulder will need to be examined Monday.

Gardenhire was less than pleased to be informed about this after Reyes entered the game.

"Rumor has it he has a tender shoulder," Gardenhire said. "Those are the kind of things a manager wants to know before the game. We'll get to the bottom of it, I guarantee you that."