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AL Central rivals close set in Minnesota

Jul 24, 2011 - 2:33 PM (Sports Network) - An already tight American League Central figures to get even tougher when the Minnesota Twins close out a four-game series with division-leading Detroit this afternoon at Target Field.

Despite having experienced more than their share of ups and downs already this season, the Twins are just six games out of first at the moment and between them and the Tigers lie the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians.

On Saturday the Twins snapped a two-game slide by posting a 4-1 victory on the strength of starting pitcher Scott Baker who returned from the disabled list and worked five scoreless innings, allowing just three hits while striking out five. In the process, Baker not only picked up his eighth win of the season, he also snapped his team's 11-game losing streak versus the Tigers.

Delmon Young delivered a two-run double and Danny Valencia hit a solo homer for the Twins, the latter extending his current hit streak to seven games in a row.

Brad Penny was charged with all four runs on seven hits and three walks over seven innings as he fell to .500 on the campaign.

Miguel Cabrera knocked in the only run for the Tigers, who won the first two contests of this four-game series and hadn't lost to the Twins since September 1, 2010.

"We probably got a little over aggressive with Baker," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland. "He's very good at getting you out on some high fastballs. I thought we probably were in a situation where we had a couple chances, but we were probably over aggressive."

Right-handed starter Rick Porcello shoots for his third win of the season against the Twins this afternoon as he takes the mound once more for Detroit. Porcello, who has a career mark of 4-3 with a 2.67 ERA in nine all-time appearances against Minnesota, needs just one more victory to give himself double-digit wins for the third straight year.

The last time out for Porcello, a matchup with Oakland earlier in the week, saw him win his third straight outing in an 8-3 final at home. In that contest the New Jersey native allowed three runs on eight hits, striking out three, over the course of six innings of action.

Countering for the Twins will be Francisco Liriano who already has one loss against the Tigers thus far in 2011.

The lefty, who sports a 4-5 career mark to go with a 5.06 ERA in 13 all-time games versus Detroit, didn't have his best stuff on Tuesday when he clashed with the Cleveland Indians, but he pitched well enough to help his squad come away with the 2-1 victory. Liriano failed to factor into the decision, even as he allowed just the one run on four hits, walking four and striking out five over six innings of action.

With Joe Mauer having been on the shelf for so long this season and still awaiting his first home run of the year, not to mention Justin Morneau taking a spot on the DL as well, it should come as little surprise that the Twins are second-to-last in the AL in long balls with a mere 61 in 100 games. Hitting for average hasn't exactly been a strong suit for Minnesota either, the club batting just .248 compared to Detroit which is third in the league at .266.