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Home | Sports | Twins

Back-to-back homers keep win streak going

Lenny Ignelzi, Associated Press

Kevin Slowey ;pitched a shutout for six innings, yielding 4 hits, walking none and striking out 7.

Unlikely heroes Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher lifted the Twins with two-out home runs in the ninth inning off Trevor Hoffman.

By JOE CHRISTENSEN, Star Tribune

Last update: June 25, 2008 - 7:56 AM

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TWINS 3, SAN DIEGO 1

Up next: 9:05 p.m. today at San Diego • TV: FSN (1500-AM)

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SAN DIEGO — Trevor Hoffman is baseball's career saves leader with 539, but on Tuesday night, he was done in by two Twins still trying to prove themselves.

Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher hit back-to-back home runs off Hoffman with two outs in the ninth inning, lifting the Twins to a 3-1 victory over the Padres at Petco Park.

"That was just huge for us," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "You know facing Hoffy it's not going to happen very often."

The Twins extended their winning streak to seven games and remained 1 1/2 games behind the first-place White Sox, who defeated the Dodgers 6-1 in Los Angeles.

Harris and Buscher also took Gardenhire off the hook for a pitching move that backfired. The manager pulled Kevin Slowey with a 1-0 lead in the seventh inning, and the Padres promptly scored the tying run off reliever Jesse Crain.

Hoffman (1-5) entered with the score still tied 1-1 in the ninth. He struck out Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel for the first two outs.

Then he threw a first-pitch fastball belt-high, and Harris lined it into the second deck in left field for his third homer of the season.

"I was looking for a fastball," Harris said. "I saw he got ahead of the first two guys with fastballs and then went right to the changeup. I was hoping I would put it in play and not have to face the changeup."

Hoffman came back with another first-pitch fastball to Buscher, who drilled his into the right-field seats for his first homer of the season.

It was the first time Hoffman had given up back-to-back home runs since Oct. 1, 2006, at Arizona.

This came in Hoffman's first career appearance against the Twins. He has now faced all 30 major league teams.

Twins closer Joe Nathan pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 20th save, and Dennys Reyes (2-0) was credited with the victory, despite throwing only one pitch. He retired Brian Giles to end the eighth inning.

With a 1-0 lead in the seventh, Gardenhire used Mike Lamb to pinch hit for Slowey, who had thrown 92 pitches and allowed only four hits, with no walks and a season-high seven strikeouts.

Slowey, who was on the disabled list earlier this season because of a strained right biceps, has posted a 1.35 ERA in his past three starts.

This time, he outdueled Jake Peavy, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner.

"National League baseball, [Slowey] having to hit again and all that," Gardenhire said. "Running him up way over 100 pitches going into the next inning, it's not going to happen.

"He's already had a little bit of arm stuff earlier in the year. We don't want to get back into that, so it's just an automatic we go to our bullpen and go from there."

During one stretch between the first and sixth innings, Slowey retired 14 consecutive batters.

But the Padres did have two hits in the sixth, and the next batter was Adrian Gonzalez, who entered the day leading the NL with 65 RBI.

Gonzalez had hit a ball to the left-center field warning track in his previous at-bat. In most ballparks, without the heavy Pacific air, that could have been his 22nd homer of the season.

Lamb grounded out in his first at-bat since June 14, and Gardenhire turned to Crain, eschewing his two lefthanded relievers: Craig Breslow, who had been warming up, and Reyes.

Gonzalez singled to start the inning, notching his second hit of the game. He moved to second on a wild pitch and to third on a single by Kevin Kouzmanoff before scoring on a bouncer by Chase Headley.

That nullified a lead the Twins had held since the first inning, when Cuddyer plated Alexi Casilla with a bloop single to right field.

Harris was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before hitting his go-ahead home run.

"It was a battle all night," Harris said. "[Peavy] was just tough. I was happy to see him at 100 pitches by the sixth inning."

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