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Home | Sports | Twins

Twins gain ground on White Sox

David Brewster, Star Tribune

Nick Punto slid into home after a single by Denard Span in the second inning Tuesday night. Royals catcher Miguel Olivo got the relay throw a bit too late.

Manager Ron Gardenhire dislikes scoreboard-watching, but with the Twins thumping the Royals and the White Sox losing twice, all was fabulous.

By JOE CHRISTENSEN , Star Tribune

Last update: September 10, 2008 - 6:58 AM

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TWINS 7, KANSAS CITY 2

Up next: 7:10 p.m. today vs. Kansas City • Metrodome • FSN, 1500-AM

Inside White Sox's Konerko helped off field after spraining right knee, C4

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The Twins toned down their out-of-town scoreboard Tuesday after featuring an expanded look at the White Sox scores on Friday and Sunday, the previous two times the AL Central foes played simultaneously.

Team officials insisted the change wasn't ordered from the Twins dugout, though manager Ron Gardenhire spent part of his pregame speech urging his players not to dwell on every Chicago score.

The scoreboard operators said they shortened the White Sox module back to standard size to avoid confusion, since Chicago played a doubleheader.

Either way, the good news kept coming as the Twins solved their problems against Royals starter Brian Bannister and rolled to a 7-2 victory before an announced crowd of 17,015 at the Metrodome.

Toronto swept the doubleheader in Chicago, and White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko sprained his right knee in the second game, as the Twins pulled within one game of first place in the Central.

Only 18 games to go, and the race remains wide open.

"As I told them in the clubhouse ... we're not going to worry about what those guys do [in Chicago]," Gardenhire said. "We can't. It'll eat you up. You have to play your games and win your games, and if you do that, everything works out pretty good."

The Twins knew they had to make up ground by beating Kansas City, and their first test was Bannister (7-15), who was 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA in five career starts against Minnesota.

This time, the Twins pounded the crafty righthander for seven runs on 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Denard Span and Brian Buscher had three hits apiece, Joe Mauer had two RBI and Justin Morneau added a two-run homer, as the Twins improved to 5-11 in their past 16 games.

Twins starter Nick Blackburn said Gardenhire's pregame theme was "just relax."

"We can't be following what the White Sox are doing," Blackburn said. "It's out of our control, basically. So his message was basically to go out there and play the game, have fun, like we've been doing the whole season."

Blackburn (10-8) held the Royals to two runs on five hits over seven innings to win for the first time since Aug. 6.

He was 0-2 with a 4.39 ERA in his previous five starts, all losses for the Twins.

"It's not so much that I couldn't get the win, it's the fact that we didn't win overall," Blackburn said. "Win-loss record to me isn't the most important thing. I just want to keep my team in it."

The Twins improved to 2-2 on the homestand after losing their final two games against Detroit, the last one coming while each at-bat of Chicago's game was highlighted on the colorful scoreboards in the right- and left-field corners.

Following those scores in a back-and-forth race have led to some sleepless nights, especially for Gardenhire and his coaching staff.

"We relaxed a little bit in the clubhouse and had a nice little talk," Gardenhire said. "It's about enjoying the heck out of this thing, not going home and beating yourself up all night.

"I told them, 'I'm going to enjoy myself. I'm going to have some fun watching you guys play, and I hope you'll join me.' That's what we're going to try to do from here on out."

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