• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Indians-Twins Preview

Sep 16, 2009 - 5:29 AM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

Cleveland (61-82) at Minnesota (72-72), 1:10 p.m. EDT

Despite losing one of their top players for the rest of the season, the Minnesota Twins are still determined to make a run at the AL Central title.

The surging Twins look for a fourth straight victory and their first series sweep of the Cleveland Indians in more than a year Wednesday afternoon at the Metrodome.

One day after learning former AL MVP Justin Morneau would be lost for the season with a back injury, Minnesota (73-72) rallied for a third straight victory, 5-4 over Cleveland on Tuesday.

"Morneau is a luxury, he's as good as they get, but we can't just lay down," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We know that we have to do other things."

The victory moved the Twins within 4 1/2 games of first-place Detroit, which visits Minnesota for a three-game series starting Friday. The teams also play four games in Detroit during the final week of the season.

"We still know if we're 4 1/2 back we're going to have to do something special," said closer Joe Nathan, who reached 40 saves for the third time in his career and first since recording 43 in 2005. "We've got to win probably more than four games against (the Tigers), probably five to have even a glimpse of hope."

Nick Punto had three hits with two RBIs and Joe Mauer added a pair of hits for the Twins, who are in position to sweep the Indians (61-83) for the first time since July 4-6, 2008.

Mauer, who leads the AL with a .373 batting average, is 10 for 16 in his last five games. He's batting .528 with eight RBIs in 14 games against the Indians this season, and is 5 for 13 with a home run lifetime versus Cleveland's scheduled starter Aaron Laffey (7-5, 3.79 ERA), who tries to avoid losing his third consecutive start and remain perfect against Minnesota this year.

The left-hander is 4-1 with a 4.05 ERA in seven starts versus the Twins - including 3-0 with a 2.29 ERA in 2009 - but is looking to bounce back from his worst effort of the season.

Laffey, who's already surpassed his career high in wins, gave up seven runs and 12 hits in 3 1-3 innings of a 10-5 loss to Texas on Sept. 8, his most recent start.

"It was one of those days," Laffey told the Indians' official Web site. "I'm going to have days like this, I've just been lucky that it's only been one or two so far."

Minnesota counters with Nick Blackburn (9-11, 4.39), who also looks to avoid losing a third straight start.

Blackburn allowed six runs in three innings of a 12-5 loss to Oakland on Friday to fall to 1-7 with a 7.36 ERA in his last 11 outings.

Though the right-hander is 4-3 with a 2.88 ERA in eight career starts against Cleveland, he's 1-3 with a 4.84 ERA this season.

Indians rookie Matt LaPorta hit his fifth homer and drove in two runs Tuesday, but Cleveland lost its third straight and for the seventh time in eight games.