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Morneau, Twins edge White Sox, inch closer to first

Jul 30, 2008 - 4:28 AM By Brian Hall PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- A bit of studying and some in-game experience against an unknown pitcher paid off for All-Star Justin Morneau and the Minnesota Twins.

Morneau nailed a bases-clearing double, capping a comeback for the Twins en route to a 6-5 victory against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday at the Metrodome.

Joe Mauer also knocked in two runs for the Twins (59-47), who have taken the first two games of the four-game series and now trail the White Sox (59-46) by one-half game in the American League Central Division.

With Chicago holding a 4-2 advantage in the fifth inning, Morneau faced rookie lefthander Clayton Richard and drove the ball over right fielder Jermaine Dye's head, scoring Carlos Gomez, rookie Denard Span and Mauer.

Minnesota hitting coach Joe Vavra had noticed on video that Richard will throw change-ups to lefthanded batters and, by his third at-bat, Morneau had seen all the pitches he needed from Richard.

"There are situations where lefty-lefty, a change-up doesn't happen too often," Morneau said. "He is one of those guys. That's the pitch he ended up throwing me, and it was kind of in the back of my mind he might throw it there. At the same time, you can't be looking for it, but fortunate it got over his head."

Glen Perkins (8-3) overcame a tough start to earn the win for Minnesota. The lefthander tossed six innings, allowing four runs and seven hits while striking out four and walking two.

Jesse Crain, Dennys Reyes and Matt Guerrier combined for two scoreless innings in relief, and Joe Nathan finished it off for his 29th save in 31 chances.

"I think you are seeing two good baseball teams get after each other pretty good here," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It's really exciting for both baseball teams. Another big win for us, a great comeback. Our bullpen was just super. Perk had a little trouble early, battled through it and got through some tough innings late."

Richard (0-1) was making his second career start for Chicago. He was in control early, but the Twins made their run in the fifth.

With the White Sox leading, 4-0, Gomez singled to right to score Minnesota's first run. After a walk to Span, Mauer lined a shot off of Richard's foot which caromed into foul territory to score another run. Morneau followed with his three-run double chasing Richard from the game.

"That's a typical Minnesota Twins baseball game; 25 bloopers and a big blast," Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said. "The guys in the front of the lineup get on base and all of a sudden you have Morneau and Mauer at the plate. It's not an easy cookie to handle."

Richard went 4 2/3 innings, yielding five runs and seven hits. He struck out three and walked two, but both free passes came in the crucial fifth inning.

Guillen made the decision to stick with Richard for a turn after he gave up five runs - four earned - in four innings in his debut last week against the Texas Rangers. Richard held the Twins to just three hits through the first four innings, allowing just one runner to reach scoring position.

"I like what he throws," Guillen said. "He is going to be back out there next outing. I like what I see. He has a lot of guts. He goes after people."

The White Sox did their damage early against Perkins.

Orlando Cabrera led off the game with a single and scored on an RBI groundout by Carlos Quentin. Josh Fields had a two-run double in the second, and Brian Anderson blasted his sixth homer of the season in the fifth for a 4-0 cushion.

"We started off hitting early, they came back and hit late," Fields said.

Mauer had an RBI single in the seventh, and Gomez finished 3-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored for Minnesota.

Nick Swisher got to Nathan with two outs in the ninth, hitting his 15th home run of the season for Chicago.

"We're still in first place and we had to come back tomorrow no matter what," Guillen said. "If we win or lose today, we have to come back tomorrow. When we are out of here, they are going to forget about this series, just continue to play the way we should be playing and see what happens."