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Home | Sports | Twins

Twins win at just above a snail's pace

Ed Zurga, Associated Press

Justin Morneau hit a home run in the fourth inning Tuesday against Kansas City.

Scott Baker won some long battles with Royals hitters through five innings, then got some late support.

By LA VELLE E. NEAL III, Star Tribune

Last update: July 1, 2009 - 5:58 AM

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TWINS 2, KANSAS CITY 1

Up next: at Kansas City • 1:10 p.m. today

Kauffman Stadium • No TV (1500-AM)

More from Twins

Follow the play-by-play of this afternoon's Twins-Royals game at startribune.com/twins.

KANSAS CITY, MO. - The Twins-Royals game on Tuesday moved with the pace of a U.S. Senate election recount.

But before lawyers got involved, the Twins squeezed out a run in the sixth to win 2-1 over a Kansas City team that is peskier than its 33-43 record suggests.

The thousands of Twins fans among the announced crowd of 19,310 watched their team secure a winning road trip while it moved one game over .500. Justin Morneau hit 19th homer and closer Joe Nathan earned his 20th save.

Of course, some fans might have dozed off during this one because of the lack of activity -- when foul balls weren't flying into the stands. The game lasted 3 hours, 17 minutes, a major flaunting of Major League Baseball's pace of game suggestions.

Blame Twins righthander Scott Baker (6-6) and few Royals hitters.

"Some really good battles,'' Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Royals hitters sprayed pitches foul and kept at-bats alive. Baker was pushed to the limit while trying to figure out ways to get them out, and the game crawled along.

There was a seven-pitch encounter with Mark Teahen in the first inning. Tony Pena Jr. worked Baker for eight pitches in the second.

David DeJesus saw seven pitches in the third before flying out. Two batters later, Billy Butler had a 10-pitch at-bat before flying out.

Pena struck out in the fourth, but not before he saw 11 pitches.

The whopper of them all came in the fifth, when Willie Bloomquist worked Baker for 15 pitches before flying out.

But Baker somehow won every long battle on a night he wasn't at his best.

"I don't know how to explain what [Baker] said in the dugout,'' Gardenhire said. "He said, 'I was making just a bad enough pitch for them to foul it off or a good enough pitch for them to not make an out.' Figure that one out. He got through it.''

Baker threw 58 pitches on those six encounters, which basically summed up his night. He was out of the game after five innings and 111 pitches, left to root for a club that had its hands full with Royals starter Brian Bannister (5-6).

"It wasn't as good as it has been but I made enough good pitches to keep them off balance,'' Baker said. "I think these are the ones you definitely grow the most from. When you have great stuff and everything is going well for you, it's easy. Sometimes you're going to have night like tonight were it's a constant grind. You have to stay on top of things.''

The Twins tied the score at 1-1 in the fourth on Morneau's homer that splashed into the fountains in right-center and was estimated at 426 feet. It was Morneau's third consecutive game with a homer, the first time he's done that since May 3-8, 2005 when he homered in four consecutive games.

Michael Cudyer's sacrifice fly in the sixth drove in Joe Mauer with what turned out to be the winning run. The Twins just needed to get to the ninth inning, and reliever Bobby Keppel stepped up with 2 1/3 scoreless innings.

Jose Mijares and Matt Guerrier each got an out in the eighth to get the ball to Nathan.

But Gardenhire singled out Keppel, whose fastball hit 94 miles per hour on the stadium radar gun.

"Keppel was the story tonight,'' Gardenhire said. "Did one heck of a job getting us into the eighth inning.''

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