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Morneau's key double lifts Twins over Sox

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The first baseman drove in three runs in Minnesota's five-run fifth inning, turning around the game and moving the club to one-half game behind Chicago.

By LA VELLE E. NEAL III , Star Tribune

Last update: July 30, 2008 - 7:05 AM

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TWINS 6, CHICAGO WHITE SOX 5

Up next: 7:10 p.m. today vs. White Sox

Metrodome • TV: FSN (1500-AM)

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The Metrodome rocked Tuesday night when Justin Morneau ripped a three-run double to right to help the Twins take the lead in the fifth inning. And fans jumped out of their seats in the eighth as reliever Matt Guerrier struck out two batters to end the inning.

Then the place fell silent in the ninth when Chicago's Nick Swisher hit a broken-bat homer off closer Joe Nathan.

But Nathan got the final out against the next batter to finish off a 6-5, come-from-behind victory against the White Sox to close within one-half game of first place in the American League Central Division.

The Twins have been in this spot a few times already -- since June 1, they have spent eight days one-half game out of first, only to fall back again. Do they have enough momentum to overtake the White Sox this time, with two more games against their division rivals in their home stadium?

"[Today] we have a chance now for first place and we'll see what happens," Morneau said, "It's just as big, and it seems like every game the rest of the way on is going to be do or die. And that's the way you want to play.''

Morneau warned against a letdown Monday after the Twins beat lefthander Mark Buehrle -- and he backed it up on Tuesday with the three-run double that gave him one homer, two doubles and seven RBI in his past three games.

An announced crowd of 35,999 also saw other Twins step up. Joe Mauer was 2-for-4 with two RBI. The outfield of Delmon Young, Carlos Gomez and Denard Span all made fine running catches, and Gomez went 3-for-3. Reliever Jesse Crain got through the seventh inning despite a 12-pitch rumble with Swisher before getting him to fly out.

Now they get a chance to move into first place tonight with righthander Livan Hernandez, who's 8-1 at home this season, on the mound.

"I think you're seeing two good baseball teams get after each other pretty good here," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It's really exciting."

The Twins trailed 4-0 against White Sox rookie lefthander Clayton Richard, who backed up Chad Henne at quarterback for a year at the University of Michigan in 2004, when the comeback began in the fifth.

Gomez dropped in a single to center to score Mike Redmond to make the score 4-1. Span fell behind 1-2 in the count but laid off three breaking balls by Richard and drew a walk. Nick Punto popped out for the second out, but Mauer singled off Richard's leg to score Brendan Harris and cut Chicago's lead to 4-2.

That brought up Morneau, who hit a 2-2 fastball so hard that it turned right fielder Jermaine Dye around and flew beyond his reach before hitting the wall. The bases cleared as the Twins took a 5-4 lead and never trailed.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen spoke to his team after it lost for the 17th time after taking a lead.

"We're still in first place," he said. "If we win or lose tonight, we've got to come back the next day, and when we're out of here, we're going to forget about this series. Let's continue to play the way we should play, and let's see what happens.

"I'm proud of the way we're competing. Hopefully we'll come back and win the next two games."

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