Carl Pavano has to take some responsibility for his season. He entered Friday the league leader with 214 hits given up and was third with 93 earned runs given up.

But he's also left five games with leads only to get a no-decision. He's has a bad defense behind,which has extended his innings and run his pitch counts up. He has thrown at least 101 pitches in six straight outings. On Friday, he threw a season-high 118 pitches over 6.2 innings as the Twins routed the Angels

It's Pavano's first win since the All-Star break. Some of it was his doing, but he's had some bad luck.

``A good win for us," Carl gave us a good start. And we took advantage of some wildness on the other side. They (the Angels) didn't throw the ball over like they normally do. We took a lot of pitches and we also got a lot of hits."

The Twins benefited from a season-high eight walks and had five four walks with the bases loaded. Trevor Plouffe, playing near his home, was 2-for-4 with a homer, two RBI and three runs scored.

``Trevor got us started, hitting a ball into the trees out there," Gardenhire said, ``.A good night for us a good win."

The 118 pitches for Pavano are the most he's thrown in a game since he threw 133 on May 17, 2005 while with the Yankees. At 7-11, he has at least four starts left to even his record for the season. Pavano said after the game that he might get the option of pitching the final game of the regular season if he wants it.

MAUER UDPATE

Joe Mauer came to the park planning to play. He began to feel worse and worse as the afternoon went. After he was diagnosed with his upper respiratory infection, he was sent back to the team hotel to recover. If he's sick, the Twins don't want players to spread the germs around. I'm sure - O.K. I hope - there's more on this tomorrow.