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Morneau, Monroe help Twins stun Royals

May 29, 2008 - 6:00 AM By Marc Bowman PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Pinch hitter Craig Monroe's home run highlighted the Minnesota Twins' 9-8 comeback victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.

Trailing, 8-3, in the ninth, the Twins plated five runs with two outs, a rally that was capped by Monroe's second career pinch homer.

Justin Morneau then hit the first pitch of the 10th inning over the right field wall for his ninth blast of the season as Minnesota completed their 12th come-from-behind victory of the season and second straight extra-inning win.

"He's been putting good swings on the ball," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He's hit some rockets up the middle and is taking what they give him. He put a really good swing on that ball. It jumped out of the ballpark."

"I was looking for one pitch in one spot, something to drive," Morneau said. "I felt good coming in and I saw it well. I got my pitch and put a good swing on it."

Jesse Crain (3-2) got the final out of the ninth inning for his second win in two days and Joe Nathan pitched a perfect 10th for his 14th save in 15 tries.

"Tonight was probably the strangest game," Crain said. "It was definitely the least-deserved win. It was an amazing comeback. You always think about these things, but coming back five or six runs with two out doesn't happen very often."

"Both games fit well together," Nathan said, referring to Tuesday's extra-inning win. "There's not too many times you see an inside-the-park homer to tie the game, but then you don't see many times you drop five in the ninth to tie it either. When we play Kansas City, it always seems like a battle, and they are always exciting games. This was just another chapter in that story."

With two outs in the ninth, Mike Lamb and Carlos Gomez sandwiched RBI singles around a base hit by Brendan Harris to get Minnesota within 8-5. Hitting for Alexi Casilla, Monroe worked the count full against Joel Peralta (0-2) before depositing a homer just over the left field wall, forging a tie.

"Really, it was a good pitch," Monroe said. "I didn't feel that I hit it that hard. It was a loud sound, though, and at the plate, I could feel it. I've hit a couple of them, so I had a feeling when it left that it was going out.

"When you're down five in the ninth, you don't really believe you're going to get a chance to come back. But it feels good when the manager has confidence in you to have the ability to tie the game up."

Gardenhire admitted he was looking for power when he replaced Casilla with Monroe.

"I knew Alexi was going to get a good at-bat, take some pitches and work the count," Gardenhire said. "But you're also looking for a bomb there, too. You've got to try to get as many two-out base hits as you can. I know Alexi's got two or three more homers, but I think Monroe's a more accomplished hitter and has a chance if you make a mistake to get one out."

Lamb had three hits, scored twice and drove in two runs as Minnesota won its third straight overall and sixth in eight meetings with Kansas City this year.

Livan Hernandez made the start for the Twins and allowed eight runs and 13 hits while striking out two without a walk. Three relievers held the Royals scoreless to set up the ninth-inning heroics.

"Baseball is like that," Hernandez said. "Sometimes you can't do anything about it. They had some hits on broken bats and some on ground balls. I didn't throw too good today. I know I can do better, but I didn't lose today. My boy hit a big home run, 3-2 (count) and two out. I was very excited about that."

Joey Gathright and Alex Gordon each collected three hits to pace a season-high 16-hit attack for Kansas City, which stumbled to its 10th straight loss while surrendering its largest lead of the season.

"These guys have to be smart and know how to get the job done," frustrated Royals left fielder Jose Guillen said. "There are too many guys that don't know how to hit and they've given up and they don't care. We have too many babies in here that don't know how to play the game. We're going to teach them the hard way or we're going to teach them the easy way. It's going to change, I'll tell you that. I can promise you that. It's going to change - soon."

"I saw some offensive things that made me feel better," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "But in the end, I don't feel better about anything right now. It's disappointing again, obviously. With our pitching situation from the extra innings last night, we didn't have anyone else available."

Zack Greinke threw a career-high 117 pitches in working eight innings for Kansas City, allowing three runs and five hits while walking two and striking out eight.

"This and the Indians loss a couple of years ago were probably the two worst losses I've ever seen," Greinke said, referring to a 13-7 loss to Cleveland in which Kansas City yielded 11 runs in the ninth during a franchise-record 19-game slide in 2005. "That was in the middle of a real long losing streak, so somehow we've got to stop it. This stuff doesn't happen, normally."

"Greinke's a pretty good pitcher," Gardenhire said. "He's got a great changeup, a great curveball. He throws the ball 94, 95 miles an hour. He's a good athlete out on the mound. We made him throw pitches. He was pretty doggone good."