Sid Hartman: Gardenhire says slugger 'battling'

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire appreciates how important Justin Morneau has been to his club's success this year. But the team leader in RBI, a .300 hitter and one of its top-fielding first basemen, has struggled against the Royals, a team that is again going to finish with a losing record.

Morneau is only a .254 career hitter against the Royals, and .273 this year, 30 points below his season average .303. He went 1-for-5 in Saturday's 4-2 loss, striking out twice and grounding into a double play with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning.

"He's battling," Gardenhire said. "Nobody wants to do this more than this guy. He has been there all year for us. He is trying as hard as he possibly can. He has got another shot [today]. We need to pick him up every once in a while too."

The Twins need Morneau's bat if they are to beat the Royals today and if they have to play an extra game in Chicago on Tuesday.

Morneau and Joe Mauer have carried this team all year. But Morneau is hitting .238 with one home run and three RBI in the Twins' five September home games against the Royals so far, with the Twins 2-3 in those games.

Whether the Twins win the division or not, Morneau has enjoyed a superstar season, but if he could snap out of his slump today, it would be a huge plus for this club in its goal to continue playing into October.

Longwell important The Titans and the Vikings are so well matched, a field goal might decide who wins today's game in Nashville.

"I think that's the absolute description of my job, and our job [as kickers]. It's all about that last kick," Longwell said. "You try to make them all, you try to approach each and every one of them as individual kicks, and put a good mind forth, and hopefully, they go through."

Two weeks ago against Indianapolis, Longwell started that game 5-for-5 on field-goal attempts before missing a sixth, a 48-yarder in the fourth quarter that would have given the Vikings an 18-7 lead. Instead, the Vikings ended up losing 18-15.

"Great snap, great hold, and I watched it on film," Longwell said. "It was kind of what I thought in the game. It started the same place that the other five did; it just hooked. So the one thing that I've definitely learned in my career is you don't play the what-if game. The 'What if it would have gone through,' all this stuff, because you just don't know how the game would change. You don't beat yourself up over the what-if game."

Longwell said kickers are obviously upset whenever they miss a field goal.

"Our goal is to be perfect," he said. "We have the one job on the team that there's no C grade. It's pass-fail."

Still, they lost only by a score of 34-21 at Columbus, where the Gophers have been blown out most of the time, with the exception of Glen Mason's 29-17 upset of the Buckeyes in 2000.

Yes, Ohio State had a total of 414 yards to the Gophers' 268, and the maroon and gold rushed for only 81 yards compared to 279 by the Buckeyes.

But the Gophers defense did a lot of good things, too. It forced the Buckeyes to kick two first-half field goals, and defensive lineman Eric Small stripped the ball from Ohio State star running back Chris Wells.

The schedule is in favor of the Gophers, with Indiana, Northwestern, Michigan and Iowa at home. So after winning one game all of last year, they have a good chance to win seven or eight and qualify for a bowl game, if they continue to improve.

Jottings It's amazing, a Kansas City team that struggled all year has now won 13 of 15 games and is giving the Twins a serious problem in their effort to win the division. ... Righthander Scott Baker says that after suffering a number of injuries earlier this year, he is 100 percent healthy and welcomes the chance to pitch in the crucial game against the Royals today.

Fred Pagac Jr., the son of the Vikings linebacker coach, is a graduate assistant coach with the Buckeyes. The younger Pagac is a former Ohio State linebacker; Pagac Sr. played tight end for the Buckeyes and then served as an assistant coach there 23 years.

Gopher baseball player Matt Nohelty is the recepient of the Henry Williams Legacy Award for the 2008-09 academic year, given to a University of Minnesota senior who has demostrated academic and athletic success as well as exemplified the core values of athletic department pride, personal integrity, respect for human dignity and loyalty. In addition, Nohelty will be honored as the recepient of the Danny Zacho Endowed Scholarship. The awards will be made at the Golden Gopher fund banquet Oct. 12 at the McNamara Alumni Center. Incidentally, Nohelty injured his shoulder while playing summer baseball and will need surgery to correct the problem. ... The Patty Berg Legacy Award, the women's equivalent to the Henry Williams Legacy Award, went to swimmer Jenny Shaughnessy, a former Rochester John Marshall athlete.

The Twins' Class AAA Rochester roster included 11 players who will be six-year minor league free agents, including former Twins players such as Howie Clark, Darnell McDonald, Tommy Watkins and Carmen Cali, as well as former All-Star closer Danny Graves. Twins farm director Jim Rantz said the club will try to re-sign some of the free agents.