• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Morneau, Twins rally past Tigers

Jul 10, 2008 - 11:16 PM DETROIT (Ticker) -- A crucial error helped keep the Minnesota Twins' hopes alive and Justin Morneau took advantage.

Morneau hit the go-ahead solo homer in the top of the 11th inning as the Minnesota Twins rallied for a 7-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.

The blast capped a five-hit day for Morneau, who lined Freddy Dolsi 's offering just over the wall in right field with one out.

"I was looking for something to drive and just got enough of it," Morneau said. "It was a good feeling rounding the bases."

The Twins trailed, 6-4, in the bottom of the ninth but Nick Punto started the inning with a single to left-center off Tigers closer Todd Jones. Rookie Denard Span followed with a base hit to right and ended up on third Detroit's Matt Joyce overran and had to chase the ball all the way to the wall. Punto scored on the play and Span came home on pinch hitter Joe Mauer's sacrifice fly, tying it at 6-6.

"I saw (Punto) rounding second and I kind of thought about throwing to third and I just got it in between hops," Joyce said. I came up on it and it obviously rolled to the wall."

"We're all in this together," Jones said. "(Joyce) wasn't out there intentionally trying to kick the ball around. If I make a couple better pitches, maybe I can get him out of it. You just gotta keep moving, keep going forward, get ready for tomorrow."

Minnesota escaped a big jam in the bottom half of the ninth when closer Joe Nathan struck out both rookie Jeff Larish and Ivan Rodriguez with the bases loaded to send the game into extra innings.

"We had our shot," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "I've seen these games 100 times in my career where you've got your shot. A lot of times when you don't do it, it comes back to haunt you. We had our shot there, we had the bases loaded. Couldn't put it in play. "

Dolsi (1-3) gave up one run and two hits over 2 1/3 innings.

Matt Guerrier (5-4) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win for Minnesota, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

"It was a good win for us after three tough losses in Boston," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "The bullpen redeemed themselves by made good pitches when they needed to. Even after we fell behind, we were still taking good swings. The guys were in the game all day."

Trailing, 2-1, in the bottom of the fourth, Detroit got five hits in a row off Minnesota starter Kevin Slowey to take a 6-2 lead.

Joyce blasted a one-out, solo home run to center to tie the score, and Larish singled in Marcus Thames, who had reached second on a single with an error. After a base hit by Rodriguez, Ramon Santiago hit a two-run double to left-center, giving the Tigers a 5-2 lead.

Placido Polanco capped the outburst, two batters later, plating Santiago with a single to center.

The Twins chipped away with single runs in the seventh and eighth inning, cutting the deficit to 6-4 on Delmon Young's RBI groundout in the eighth.

"It was a big win for us," Morneau said. "We were down a couple in the ninth, they made a mistake and we took advantage of it."

Tigers starter Kenny Rogers gave up three runs and nine hits over seven innings, striking out one and walking two.