• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Surging Twins look for series win against Angels

Aug 24, 2008 - 6:46 AM Minnesota (74-55) at LA Angels (78-50), 3:35 pm EDT

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- In the midst of the Minnesota Twins' surge to becoming a legitimate playoff contender, they caught the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim napping on their 16-game cushion in the American League West.

With a win on Sunday's finale of a four-game set, the Twins can take three games from the Angels, who have dropped seven of their last 10.

The Twins have won eight of their last 10 contests and despite losing on Saturday, they stand a half-game ahead of the Chicago White Sox (73-55) in the AL Central.

Kevin Slowey (10-8, 3.78 ERA) takes the mound for Minnesota with hopes of building on his recent success. The 24-year-old righthander is 3-0 with a 1.45 ERA in his last three starts and has held opponents to one run or less in six of his last seven starts.

Justin Morneau is the only Twins player to have appeared in all 129 games and he needs to drive in one more run to join Harmon Killebrew as the only players in Twins history with three consecutive 100-RBI seasons.

Ervin Santana (13-5, 3.39) will try to prevent that from happening. The righthander has won two straight decisions and has surrendered more than three runs in jthree of his previous 10 outings.

Santana has been a revelation for Anaheim, one year removed from being 7-14 with a 5.76 ERA. In 2007, he was 1-10 with an 8.38 ERA on the road.

In his last start, he gave up one run and four hits in seven brilliant innings against the Tampa Bay Rays, but didn't factor in the decision.

The 25-year-old tossed six innings, allowing two runs and four hits while earning the win over the Twins in his first start in 2008.