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Garza dominates; Twins' offense awakens in rout

Aug 15, 2007 - 7:02 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Matt Garza has been pitching lights-out. The Minnesota Twins' stagnant offense finally awoke to support him.

Garza threw seven-plus impressive innings, Rondell White drove in a pair of runs and Jason Bartlett homered as the Twins snapped a five-game losing streak with an 11-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday.

Torii Hunter had three hits and scored a career-high four runs for Minnesota (60-60), which pounded out 18 hits and remained 6 1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers (66-53) in the American League Central.

"Last couple starts he's been pitching well, we just can't get him any runs," Hunter said. Today, it felt good to get some runs for a guy that's really been out there battling."

The 23-year-old Garza (2-3) limited the previously red-hot Mariners to three runs and nine hits to pick up his first win since July 6.

The Twins' top pitching prospect, Garza had been terrific in allowing three runs or less in each of his six starts, but had received two runs or less of support in all but one start.

"The runs were great," Garza said. "I knew I had them there. My goal was to try to keep throwing zeroes up. Theses are big league hitters, there was no chance to relax."

However, that was not an issue Tuesday as Minnesota scored more than three runs for just the second time in 13 games.

Mike Redmond put the Twins on the board in the first with a one-out RBI single to center field off Mariners starter Horacio Ramirez (7-4). Rookie Alexis Casilla added a run-scoring single in the frame for a 2-0 lead.

Michael Cuddyer made it 3-0 with a double that plated Torii Hunter in the third. After a solo homer by Bartlett in the fifth, White hit a two-out, two-run double to right for a 6-1 lead.

Garza threw four scoreless innings after allowing an RBI single to Jose Vidro in the third but got into trouble in the eighth being relieved by Pat Neshek. Garza allowed two straight hits and another RBI single to Vidro, exiting with an 8-2 lead.

The righthander threw 60 of 100 pitches for strikes and struck out two while shutting down the Mariners, who had won three straight and six of seven overall.

Meanwhile, Ramirez, who had been 6-0 with a 3.24 ERA at home, did not fare as well as Garza. The lefthander allowed six runs and nine hits in five innings and has allowed 15 runs over his last 14 2/3 innings.

"It feels like everything is going wrong for me," Ramirez said. "If I make a mistake it gets hit, if I make a good pitch it gets through the infield. I need to weather the storm and try to figure things out."

Vidro had two hits and two RBI for Seattle (66-51), which remained three games behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for first place in the AL West and tied with the New York Yankees (67-52) for the wild card.

Meanwhile, Casilla drove in two runs for Minnesota, which is trying to stay alive in the division race despite having lost seven of its last nine games.

"Our goal now is to get back to .500 and go from there," manager Ron Gardenhire said.

"See if we can get back in this thing and chase down the guys ahead of us. They haven't left us behind we know that. It hasn't been looking very good lately, but we always keep hope."