Continued: Long ball is less rare for Casilla

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OAKLAND, CALIF. - Second baseman Alexi Casilla drilled his sixth home in Sunday's 12-4 victory over Oakland, adding to his surprising power surge for the Twins.

Casilla, 24, entered the season with zero home runs in 193 major league at-bats, and seven in 1,507 minor league at-bats.

Now he sits two homers behind Joe Mauer and Delmon Young on the Twins' leaderboard.

"I'm not trying to hit home runs," Casilla said. "I'm just trying to swing it hard and hit line drives."

Casilla's two-out, two-run shot off Greg Smith in the second inning stretched the Twins' lead to 3-0. It was Casilla's second home run batting righthanded. The switch hitter also has four from the left side.

Those are nice, but Twins manager Ron Gardenhire also noted Casilla's strikeout with no outs and the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

"His swings were a little bit too big," Gardenhire said. "In that situation, we like him to shorten up and make contact. But you know what, he's very quick, and he knows what the pitchers are trying to do. He's not afraid to turn on a ball."

Humber's audition

Twins pitching prospect Philip Humber will be out of minor league options next spring, but the Twins should get a better feel for his big-league potential this month.

Humber and fellow minor leaguers Bobby Korecky and Jose Mijares will join the Twins bullpen on Tuesday in Toronto.

After coming to the Twins from the Mets in the Johan Santana trade, Humber went 10-8 with 4.56 ERA for Rochester, including 3-1 with a 2.30 ERA in his final four starts, with 26 strikeouts and four walks.

"He's really pitched well and been one of their better ones down there over the last month," Gardenhire said. "This is a good time to take a look at him. He's a guy we have to make a decision on."

Molitor likes Mijares

The Twins picked Mijares for a promotion over Class AAA lefty Brian Duensing.

"Duensing was over at the Olympics and better suited for a starting role," Gardenhire said. "Mijares was throwing the living fire out of the ball."

After fracturing his pitching elbow in a January car accident in Venezuela, Mijares made a brief stop in the Class A Florida State League and made a big impression on Hall of Famer Paul Molitor.

"Molitor told me midseason that he'll be in the big leagues before the year's out," Gardenhire said. "[Minor league pitching coordinator] Rick Knapp said that's a very good callup, well-deserved. ... I saw his fastball at 93-94 miles per hour."

If it's any consolation for Duensing, he will be among several medal winners appearing on "Oprah," in a show to be taped Tuesday.

Bass bypassed

The Twins did not recall Brian Bass after demoting him to Rochester on Aug. 20. He made two starts for the Red Wings, going 1-0 with a 4.00 ERA with four walks and six strikeouts in nine innings.

The Twins believed 15 pitchers was plenty for September.

"We weren't using [Bass] when he was here," Gardenhire said. "It looked like he was struggling."

Bass leads the Twins with 68 1/3 relief innings, but only 5 2/3 of those came in August. He recorded a 4.87 ERA in 44 appearances.

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