twins/mlb

NEW YORK -- At another point in Scott Baker's career -- perhaps in a different season, with less ground to make up on the division leaders -- Twins manager Ron Gardenhire might have made a different decision than the pivotal one he made in the sixth inning Wednesday night.

Torii Hunter's two-run homer in the fifth had given the Twins a one-run lead, but Gardenhire wanted more.

He also knew his bullpen was rested and that lefthander Dennys Reyes had his slider working again to utilize against the lefthanded hitters coming up for the New York Mets.

So Gardenhire pulled Baker for a pinch hitter, Mike Redmond delivered yet another clutch hit, and the Twins pulled away for a confidence-building 6-2 victory against the Mets at Shea Stadium.

"Obviously, I could have gone back out there; I had plenty of pitches left," said Baker, who threw 84 in his five innings.

"I technically haven't earned the right to go back out there at that point," Baker said. "That's OK. That's just the way it is. It's not a personal thing, it's just business."

If the Twins needed any reminder about the importance of every game from this point forward, Gardenhire showed them throughout the sixth inning, as he managed with his foot on the accelerator.

Baker (2-2) held the Mets to two runs, despite giving up seven hits. Yes, leaving with a 3-2 lead would be a confidence boost for the struggling righthander, but as Gardenhire said flatly, in the middle of his explanation, "We wanted that run."

And then, Gardenhire wanted another.

After Redmond lined his run-scoring single to left field, making it 4-2, Jason Tyner replaced him as a pinch runner.

The Twins' bench is so thin that the move left Gardenhire with these potential late-inning pinch-hitting options: Jason Kubel (who's batting .235), Jason Bartlett (.247), Luis Rodriguez (.192) and Chris Heintz (.208).

But before the second guessers could finish their sentences, Tyner stole second base -- something Redmond, for all his other qualities, simply couldn't have done.

Mets reliever Joe Smith walked Luis Castillo, putting two runners aboard, and then Joe Mauer brought them both home when he lined a two-run double off Scott Schoeneweis into the left-center field gap.

The Twins still needed 12 outs, but the relievers had a good rest Tuesday when Johan Santana fired his complete-game shutout.

Reyes came in and retired the lefthanded-hitting Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green before yielding a single to switch-hitting Jose Valentin.

"Before I went on the [disabled list], I couldn't throw the slider the way I used to," Reyes said. "Now I can."

Matt Guerrier, Pat Neshek and Joe Nathan did the rest, as the Twins finished taking two of three from the Mets, who fell to 4-14 in June.

"It was a huge series here in New York against a good baseball team," Gardenhire said. "All the little things worked out for us tonight. We'll see if we can keep doing that."