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Morneau's double lifts Twins over White Sox

Apr 30, 2008 - 9:50 PM By Jon Avise PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

Minneapolis (Ticker) -- Justin Morneau knocked in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning Wednesday, lifting the Minnesota Twins to a 4-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox and a sweep of the two-game series between the AL Central Division rivals.

Rookie Nick Blackburn (2-1) allowed three runs and eight hits in seven innings, striking out four and walking a pair in the Twins.

Dennys Reyes and Pat Neshek combined to pitch the eighth, and closer Joe Nathan pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his ninth save, preserving the Twins' seventh come-from-behind win of the season.

It wasn't the prettiest of wins for Blackburn, but it was one he and his manager will both gladly take over the first-place White Sox.

"He labored through it, but he made some pitches, got some outs when he needed to," Twins manager Gardenhire said.

"I feel like I'm making a lot of mistakes, but I'm getting lucky," Blackburn said. "I won't feel good until I'm hitting my spots."

In what was a back-and-forth game, Morneau made certain Blackburn got a win for his work. After rookie Carlos Gomez reached base for the third time to lead off the seventh, Brendan Harris' second sacrifice of the game moved him to second.

Morneau then drove in his team-leading 22nd run of the season, smashing Boone Logan's pitch to deep left-center for a ground-rule double.

"Off the bat, right away, I wasn't sure it was going to fall," Morneau said.

Chicago's Ehren Wasserman (0-1), who gave up Gomez's single, picked up the loss in relief. He allowed one run and one hit in one-third of an inning.

"When I'm on base, when I'm on second or third and Morneau or (Joe) Mauer are up, I say 90 percent of the time, I'm gonna score," Gomez said.

It was Chicago who got out front early. Blackburn's leadoff walk to Nick Swisher in the first inning led to the game's first run after Jim Thome drove in his 19th run of the season with a double to center field.

Minnesota struck back immediately, Gomez leading off with a single in the bottom half of the inning. Michael Cuddyer laced a two-out single into right to tie the game at 1-1.

The base hit extended Cuddyer's hitting streak to five games since he came off the disabled list April 25.

In the fourth, Chicago's Carlos Quentin drove a 1-1 pitch into the left field seats to give Chicago a 2-1 lead. But the Twins responded quickly, chasing White Sox starter Nick Masset from the game in the bottom of the fourth with two runs to take the lead.

Gomez doubled to left to score the first run, and Harris grounded out to shortstop, plating Nick Punto to make it 3-2.

Gomez used his speed to almost tack on another in the fourth, stealing third base and then breaking for home when the ball squirted free from Chicago third baseman Joe Crede.

A textbook block of the plate by White Sox catcher Toby Hall, though, ended the inning and drew the ire of Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.

"It wasn't a good play - it was almost a good play," Gardenhire said. "We'll work those things out and take care of them."

Chicago evened the game again in the top of the fifth on a two-out RBI double by Swisher, setting the stage for Morneau's heroics.

"It's been a couple rough games for us and we haven't really been doing at the plate what we want to," Swisher said. "Our pitchers go out there and do a heck of a job for us and we need to start scoring some runs for them."