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Mauer powers Twins past Marlins

Jun 24, 2007 - 9:49 PM MIAMI (Ticker) -- Johan Santana and Joe Mauer made sure the Minnesota Twins' first visit to Miami ended on a good note.

Behind six solid innings from Santana and a pair of home runs by Mauer, the Twins defeated the Marlins, 7-4, on Sunday afternoon to take the rubber game and the first regular-season series in Miami between the clubs.

Jason Bartlett also had a pair of RBI for the Twins, who improved to 106-86 all-time in interleague play.

"(Johan) did what he needed to do to get a win," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Joe Mauer put it in the seats a few times for us. ... Some good things happened for us."

Mauer, who had three RBI in Saturday's win, smashed a solo shot off Marlins starter Byung-Hyun Kim in the first and a two-run shot in the sixth that pushed the lead to 7-2.

It was the second career two-homer game for Mauer, who had only one home run all season entering Sunday. The first was June 30, 2004 against the Chicago White Sox.

"I put some good swings (on the ball) and I was able to get them up and out of here," said Mauer, who missed over a month with a injury to his left quadriceps muscle. "He made a couple of mistakes ... pitches up and I was able to put good swings on them. I'm feeling good."

"Joe can flat out hit," Gardenhire said. "Home runs are going to come."

With the temperature hovering in the low 90s, tempers flared in the fourth inning when Minnesota's Michael Cuddyer argued a called third strike with plate umpire Larry Young and was ejected.

Gardenhire bounded out of the dugout, threw his cap down in the direction of Young and was immediately tossed as well.

"I think he (Cuddyer) just told him the ball was high, and Larry was pretty fired up and said, 'You picked a bad day,'" Gardenhire said. "Like the song, 'You Had a Bad Day.' And I just came running out of the dugout and I just took my glasses off and had my glasses in one hand and my hat in the other and I fired (the hat) and didn't even know what I was doing."

"My hat beat me out there and that's not good," Gardenhire added. "It must be the heat. I'm going to blame it on the heat. ... Not the way to go out and argue if you plan on staying in the game."

Cuddyer said it was his first ejection of his major-league career.

Santana (8-6) went six innings giving up two runs - one earned - and five hits while striking out eight before giving way to Matt Guerrier.

"I felt pretty good," Santana said. "I've never faced this team before. We didn't know what kind of approaches, what kind of things they were doing. At the same time we were able to throw all of my pitches and ... mix everything. And as the game went on I was feeling more comfortable."

The Twins were once again without Justin Morneau, the 2006 American League MVP, who was knocked out of Friday's game after a collision at home plate with Florida catcher Miguel Olivo.

After coughing up blood, Morneau, who had 20 homers this season, was taken to a hospital for what's been diagnosed as a bruised lung. Morneau remained hospitalized at Memorial West Hospital in Pembroke Pines Sunday and was scheduled to undergo more tests. He wasn't expected to fly home with the team.

Santana helped his own cause with an RBI triple, the first of his career, in the second to break a 1-1 tie. Jason Bartlett's sacrifice fly scored Santana with the go-ahead run. The Twins added two runs in fourth aided by a Florida error.

"In that situation I'm just trying to hit the ball," Santana said. "I'm trying to see the ball, hit the ball. It's all about having fun."

"We battled him," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "I thought we had some good approaches at him in our at-bats, but he is what he is. He's probably the best lefthander in the majors right now."

Miguel Cabrera hit his 121st home run to move alone into fourth place all-time in Marlins history in the eighth, and Matt Treanor had a run-scoring single off Joe Nathan, who gave up three hits in the ninth to make things interesting.

Dan Uggla hit his 15th homer of the year, a solo shot, in the first for the Marlins, who dropped to 15-21 at home with the loss.

Kim (3-4), who is winless in June, gave up seven runs in six innings, while walking five and striking out six to raise his ERA to 5.72. He threw a season-high 118 pitches.

"Usually when ((Kim) gets around the 85 pitch mark, especially here at home where it gets so hot, you see (pitchers) tamper off a little bit but (Kim) stayed strong throughout, so that's a good positive sign," Treanor said. "I was kind of surprised to see Johan (Santana) stay as strong as he did throughout the game."

And that proved to be the difference.

"It was tough, the weather was very hot out there," Santana said. "But we were able to battle through and take this win."