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Slowey, rookie bats help Twins topple Athletics

Aug 20, 2008 - 4:54 AM By Brian Hall PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Rookie hurler Kevin Slowey doesn't expect to blow hitters away. The 24-year-old righthander knows he doesn't have the pitches in his repertoire.

However, with the help of pitching coach Rick Anderson and manager Ron Gardenhire, he understands he doesn't need one dominant pitch to succeed.

Slowey struck out a career-high 12 batters and rookies Brian Buscher and Carlos Gomez each had two-run homers as the Minnesota Twins toppled the Oakland Athletics, 13-2, on Tuesday.

Buscher finished with three hits and tied a career high with five RBI while Randy Ruiz and Brendan Harris each had two hits and two RBI for the Twins, who are now 29-8 at home since June 1. Justin Morneau added three hits in the 16-hit attack.

Minnesota (71-54) remains one game behind the American League Central Division-leading Chicago White Sox (72-53).

"I would love to throw 96 (miles per hour), but I definitely don't," Slowey said. "I don't have a slider like Joe Nathan. But (Anderson and Gardenhire) really are huge proponents of location over velocity. They always make a big point of that.

"Keep the ball low and 92 looks a lot harder than 92. Ninety-seven at the belt gets hit pretty hard."

Slowey (10-8) allowed two runs and five hits over seven strong innings. The 12 strikeouts were the most by a Minnesota pitcher since August 19, 2007, when Johan Santana had 12 against Texas. Slowey retired the last 10 hitters he faced.

Brian Bass tossed two scoreless innings in relief.

Since allowing five runs in a loss against Cleveland on August 2, Slowey has given up just four runs in his last 18 2/3 innings. He is 6-4 with a 3.38 ERA at the Metrodome this season.

Slowey was able to cruise thanks to his team's heavy-hitting offense.

"When we put up three runs, then three runs again, and all of a sudden we are up five or six runs, I think it gives us a little more leeway out there," Slowey said. "We don't have to be quite as fine. When we do get ahead, we can try and put a guy away, as opposed to really worrying about our pitch count."

After Buscher's fourth homer opened the scoring, Denard Span plated Harris with a triple in the second for a 3-0 lead. Morneau's RBI double started things in the fourth, where Ruiz had an RBI single and Harris laced an RBI double down the left field line for a 6-0 advantage.

Gomez's sixth homer capped a four-run fifth, which included Buscher's RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Harris that scored Morneau.

That ended the night for Oakland starter Sean Gallagher (1-2). The righthander, acquired from the Chicago Cubs in the Rich Harden deal, went five innings, giving up 10 runs and 11 hits.

"His velocity was a little bit down, he was around the strike zone too much," Athletics manager Bob Geren said. "After the game, the word was that he probably has some fatigue in his arm. He is not injured, he just definitely has some dead arm."

Geren said the rookie might possibly miss a start to recover.

It's another setback in a frustrating season for Oakland. Geren was hoping to have a bullpen-saving outing from Gallagher because Justin Duchscherer left Monday's game after three innings with an injured hip.

"He kept saying he was fine, nothing was bothering him," Geren said. "Our bullpen is very thin, and we needed him to go out there and try and give us four or five innings, and go 100 pitches. The way it turned out, we are going to be fine for tomorrow."

Minnesota scored three in the sixth off reliever Santiago Casilla. Ruiz added his second RBI single and Buscher followed with a two-run single.

"We had 10 hits yesterday, but we couldn't put any runs across, so we came out and hit the ball pretty good tonight," Buscher said. "I am just trying to put the ball in play, move runners over, get them in however we can."

Kurt Suzuki's seventh home run opened the scoring for Oakland, which is a major league-worst 6-24 since the All-Star break.

"These are the games we need to win, playing a team that is struggling a little bit this year," Span said. "This is one of those nights where you want to be in the lineup. You see everyone going up there with confident swings and putting good swings on the ball, definitely if you are on the Twins' team tonight, you want to be in the lineup."