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Twins try to stretch win streak against Brewers

May 18, 2012 - 2:50 PM (Sports Network) - The Minnesota Twins have the worst record in baseball, but are starting to come alive with back-to-back wins. They will try to record three straight victories for the first time this season tonight in the opener of a three-game interleague series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Minnesota is a lowly 12-26 this season, but played better than its record in a two-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers in the first leg of an eight-game road trip. After an 11-7 victory in the series opener, the Twins posted a 4-3 win on Thursday. Recently activated off the disabled list, Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, a former AL MVP, cracked a two-run homer and Trevor Plouffe added a solo shot during a three-run third inning.

Morneau ended with four RBI and Drew Butera recorded three hits in the win.

Minnesota starting pitcher P.J. Walters pitched 6 1/3 innings to earn his third major league win, and first win since 2010. The right-hander gave up four hits, three of which were solo home runs, walked three and struck out a pair of batters.

"You don't like to give up home runs, but the offense gave me a little room to work with so it didn't hurt us," Walters said.

The Twins will also visit the White Sox on the trek and will pin pitching duties on Scott Diamond tonight. Diamond has been sharp in his two starts this season, throwing seven scoreless innings in each trip to the mound. He last toed the rubber in Sunday's 4-3 win over Toronto and struck out four batters while not allowing a walk. He was called up from Triple-A Rochester last week.

Diamond, a left-hander, will face Milwaukee for the first time and has yet to pitch away from Target Field this season.

Milwaukee has dropped two in a row and four of five games and will start a six-game homestand tonight versus the Twins and Giants.

"It's always good when we go home because we need to get it going," said Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke. "Maybe going home will help us, but we need to get some things corrected offensively."

The Brewers were swept in two games by the NL Central-rival Houston Astros and dropped a 4-0 decision on Thursday. Norichika Aoki had three of Milwaukee's eight hits and starting pitcher Shaun Marcum suffered the loss, as he gave up four runs -- three earned -- and nine hits in five innings.

Marco Estrada has the honor of taking the mound tonight for Milwaukee and is 0-2 with a 4.20 ERA in nine games (4 starts) this season. Estrada last pitched in Sunday's 8-2 loss versus the Cubs and threw six decent innings of two-run ball with four K's and one walk.

Estrada, a right-hander, has faced Minnesota three times (1 start) in his career and is 0-0 with a 6.35 ERA.

Milwaukee won four of six meetings with Minnesota a year ago and has won eight of the past 12 matchups between the two clubs. The Brewers are 99-115 in interleague play, while Minnesota sports a dominant 148-116 record against the National League.