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Astros-Twins Preview

Jun 20, 2009 - 6:13 AM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Houston (30-34) at Minnesota (34-34), 7:10 p.m. EDT

The Minnesota Twins have thrived in interleague play. The Houston Astros, meanwhile, likely can't wait to resume the NL portion of their schedule.

Minnesota tries to maintain its dominance over the NL on Saturday night at the Metrodome, where it continues its three-game set against the Astros.

The Twins (35-34) improved to 3-1 on their homestand and moved above .500 for the first time since May 14 with Friday's 5-2 victory. Minnesota is 8-2 in interleague play this season and 22-6 since the beginning of 2008.

Kevin Slowey outdueled Houston ace Roy Oswalt in the series opener and joined Toronto's Roy Halladay as the major league's only 10-game winners.

"(Oswalt is) tough, but we were able to wear him out and score a few runs - and the pitching did the rest," said Twins right-fielder Michael Cuddyer.

Cuddyer had an RBI double in the sixth and Delmon Young knocked in two in the eighth with a double, but Minnesota played small ball and won for the 11th time when not hitting a home run.

Justin Morneau's sacrifice fly in the first gave the Twins a 1-0 lead, and Nick Punto's flawless squeeze play in the fifth pushed Young home with the go-ahead run.

"Nicky knows how the play the game the right way," said Young, batting .333 in his last nine games. "I had confidence once the play was called that Nicky was going to get the bunt down."

After missing Thursday's 5-1 win over Pittsburgh with the flu, Joe Mauer extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a first-inning single and went 1 for 4. He is batting .493 (37 for 75) with eight home runs and 25 RBIs at the Metrodome.

The two-time batting champ - hitting .552 (16 for 29) in interleague play - looks to help back Scott Baker (4-6, 5.30 ERA). The right-hander, who is making his first career appearance against Houston, went seven innings and picked up a no-decision in his last start, a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday when he yielded just two runs and five hits.

Houston, which is 10-4 versus National League foes since May 31, has dropped six of seven to the AL. The Astros (30-35) had just five hits in Friday's loss as their batting average dipped to .236 during the first seven games of this nine-game road trip.

The top six hitters in Houston's lineup went a combined 1 for 18 on Friday, with the lone hit Jeff Keppinger's solo homer in the eighth.

Houston will try to give more run support to Brian Moehler (3-4, 6.66), who gave up three runs over six innings in Sunday's 8-3 win at Arizona.

"He wasn't really, really sharp," Astros manager Cecil Cooper said, "but he hung in there."

Houston has won five of Moehler's last seven starts, but the veteran right-hander has a 5.05 ERA during this stretch.

Moehler is 2-4 with a 4.65 ERA in 10 career starts against Minnesota, which he has not faced since 2002 while with Detroit.

Lance Berkman, who went 0 for 2 with two walks Friday, is hitless in his last 13 at-bats. He is two RBIs shy of 1,000 for his career.