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Morneau belts grand slam as Twins roll over Tigers

Sep 6, 2008 - 4:39 AM By Brian Hall PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Dome sweet Dome. That is how the Minnesota Twins must be feeling.

Justin Morneau hit a grand slam to back up another strong start from Francisco Liriano as the Twins rolled to a 10-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers in their return to the Metrodome on Friday.

With Minnesota nursing a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, Morneau connected for his second grand slam of the season and fourth of his career. Meanwhile, Liriano (5-3) won his fifth straight decision with seven solid innings.

Delmon Young added a home run and two RBI as the Twins snapped a three-game losing streak.

"Nice way to come home," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Marcus Thames hit two home runs for the Tigers, who have lost four of their last five.

There is no doubt the Twins are glad to be home after a grueling 14-game road trip - during which they went 5-9 - caused by the Republican National Convention, which was held at the Metrodome. Thanks to Morneau and Liriano, Minnesota (78-63) trails the Chicago White Sox (79-61) by 1 1/2 games in the American League Central Division.

"It's always fun when you come back and you get your fans and you're playing well," Morneau said. "This is a game we definitely needed to win after getting beat up pretty good those last three games in Toronto, come back and hopefully we can get on a roll again."

Liriano had perhaps his most dominant outing since his return from Class AAA Rochester at the beginning of August. The lefthander struck out a season-high nine and allowed two runs and five hits with one walk.

He had two no-decisions on the road trip, but allowed only two runs over 13 innings, and has given up just seven runs in 43 2/3 innings since his promotion.

"When I went down to Triple-A, I was working on my changeup," Liriano said. "I have just been working a lot with it and getting better."

Morneau said Liriano's changeup is evoking memories of the Twins' former ace, Johan Santana.

"The thing that's made him tough now is he has added that changeup," Morneau said. "It's almost like, I don't want to go this far, but its almost like Santana was when he could throw that changeup when he wants to.

"He's the ace, I think. It's looking like he wants to pitch in those big games when we need the wins, and he is coming through."

Detroit rookie Armando Galarraga (12-5) got in trouble with poor command. He allowed three hits but walked six and allowed six runs in six innings. Galarraga struck out four and gave up two home runs.

The righthander walked three of the first four hitters he faced, and Jason Kubel put Minnesota up 1-0 in the first with a sacrifice fly. The first hit Galarraga allowed found the center-field seats when Young blasted his ninth homer of the season in the fourth for a 2-0 lead.

Thames' first home run made it 2-1 in the fifth. In the bottom of the inning, Carlos Gomez singled, and Alexi Casilla and Joe Mauer walked in front of Morneau's 22nd homer put the Twins up, 6-1.

"For some reason, my fastball wasn't coming really good tonight," Galarraga said. "It was tough. My sinker moved so much. I was trying to go away and I couldn't throw on the corners, that's why I got six walks."

"They pitched better than we did," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "They hit a couple of balls out of the ballpark. They got a bunch of free passes to get guys out there. There was the one inning to load the bases."

Mauer and Young added RBI singles, and Brian Buscher hit a two-run single in the seventh. Thames led off the eighth with his 24th homer.