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Home | Sports | Twins

Twins devour another legend

Minnesota won its eighth consecutive game by beating Greg Maddux, who has been looking for victory No. 351 for nine starts.

By JOE CHRISTENSEN, Star Tribune

Last update: June 26, 2008 - 10:06 AM

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TWINS 9, SAN DIEGO 3

Up next: 2:35 p.m. today at San Diego • TV: FSN (1500-AM)

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SAN DIEGO - Randy Johnson. Brandon Webb. Jake Peavy. Greg Maddux.

When it comes to National League pitching, that's Mount Rushmore.

Between them, they've won 11 Cy Young Awards. But in a span of five games, the Twins have handled all four, without taking a loss.

Maddux became the latest to fall, as the surging Twins overcame an early three-run deficit Wednesday night and rolled to a 9-3 victory over the Padres.

For the second consecutive night, Brendan Harris hit the go-ahead home run. This time, it was a two-run shot off Maddux in the fourth inning.

The Twins extended their winning streak to eight games, pulling within a half-game of the White Sox, who lost to the Dodgers 5-0.

"It's like the guys are saying, this is a lot of fun," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "I think we did this for what seemed like four months in '06, so hopefully we can continue the rest of the way."

The Twins are 11-3 in interleague play, and today they'll face Padres righthander Josh Banks, looking for another three-game sweep.

Maddux (3-6) remained stuck on 350 career victories for the ninth consecutive start, as the Twins roughed him up for seven runs (six earned) on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Glen Perkins (4-2) settled down after a shaky start and held the Padres to three runs on six hits in five innings.

The Padres are 8-18 against lefthanded starting pitchers, but they built a 3-0 lead by the second inning off the Twins lefty.

Minnesota answered with three runs in the third.

"Over the last eight or 10 days, we've put together some pretty big innings," Gardenhire said. "So you kind of get that feeling that this might be the inning every time you come in the dugout."

With two outs, Alexi Casilla hit an RBI single, and Joe Mauer followed with a two-run double off the left-field wall. That last play displayed the exceptional speed the Twins have atop their order. Carlos Gomez easily scored from second base, and Casilla motored home from first, as if he had a sixth gear.

One inning later, Harris made it 5-3 Twins with his two-run homer to left field.

What a stunning turnaround this has been for Harris.

After swatting two home runs in his first 243 at-bats for the Twins, he had two in three at-bats. Off Trevor Hoffman and Maddux -- two future Hall of Famers. At Petco, a notorious pitcher's paradise.

"I'm not going to sit here and say those are just another couple home runs," Harris said. "There'll be stars next to those. Those will be pretty good memories."

Gomez finished Maddux with a two-out, two-run single in the sixth inning.

Craig Monroe added a two-run, pinch-hit homer off Padres reliever Mike Adams in the eighth.

Brian Bass pitched two scoreless innings of relief for the Twins. Craig Breslow pitched the eighth, and Boof Bonser pitched the ninth.

Casilla had another terrific game defensively. In the fifth inning, he made a diving, backhanded stop on a sharp bouncer by Edgar Gonzalez and fired to first base for the out.

Before the game, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire held a special tutorial with Casilla, practicing that very same play. Casilla had been struggling to hang on to balls to his backhand side, but this time he turned in a highlight-reel play.

That's how things have been going, as the Twins are riding their longest winning streak since they won eight ballgames in a row from July 14-21, 2006.

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