Indians 5, Twins 4

Friday was not the regular dominant Johan Santana (18-5, 2.77 ERA) outing that fans have come to expect. After hanging in there for eight innings, he allowed 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits, 4 of them coming before the second inning. Johan walked one and struck out seven Cleveland batters. The Indian runs started early, with a first baseman Ryan Garko 2-run homer (6) in the first. They scored again when left-fielder Franklin Gutierrez lined an RBI single in the second, bringing the score to 3-o.

Fausto Carmona (1-9, 6.03 ERA) had held the Twins hitless with 3 walks up until the fourth inning. After walking Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau singled to bring him home. Another walk put Torii Hunter on board before Rondell White grounded into a double play, scoring Michael Cuddyer.

In the fifth, short stop Hector Luna led off with a double and was in safe at third on second baseman Joe Inglett's fielder's choice after a rare mishandled ball from Santana to Nick Punto. Punto then threw Luna out at home on a head's up play, but then Gutierrez doubled, scoring Inglett.

Cleveland held their 4-2 lead until the top of the ninth, when Jason Bartlett lined a base hit, Luis Castillo walked and Punto singled, loading the bags. Mauer then grounded out to score Bartlett, bringing the Twins within one. Reliever Tom Mastny (4.02 ERA) must not have gotten the memo about our Canadian Crusher being 2nd in the league for RBIs, because he intentinoally walked Cuddyer to load the bases again to get to Justin. Morneau delivered a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Castillo, knotting the game at 4.

Pat Neshek (L 4-2, 2.48 ERA) replaced Santana in the ninth, striking out the first two batters, walking one and forcing a pop out to bring the game into extras. Fernando Cabrera (W 3-2, 4.95 ERA) came in for Cleveland in the top of the tenth, forcing Lew Ford and Jason Tyner to ground out and Bartlett to strike out swinging.

After a Gutierrez double in the bottom of the tenth, Dennys Reyes (0.99 ERA) replaced Neesh and it all fell apart from there. He intentionally walked right-fielder Casey Blake with one out, and threw a wild pitch that advanced both runners. Then, he put catcher Victor Martinez on board to load 'em up. This would bring another pitching change: Jesse Crain (3.80 ERA) to get the last two outs. He forced a groundout to scary Ryan Garko, but after Castillo's flip, Bartllett threw a bad hop to Morneau, and Justin just couldn't dig it out. Gutierrez scores. Indians win 5-4.

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Carlos Silva: I eat Indians for breakfast!

C.C. Sabathia: I hate the Twins. They're good.

The Twins will look to take the series lead Saturday with Carlos Silva (9-13, 6.08 ERA) on the mound against none other than Captain Cheeseburger Sabathia (11-9, 3.24 ERA) and the Tribe. Booooooo!

Detroit put the stomp on Baltimore with a 17-2 victory Friday, taking a 2 game lead over the Twins in the Division. Chicago was held to 3 hits in their 4-2 loss to Oakland, remaining 2 games behind the Twins in the Wild Card Standings.

Batting Title Watch: Joe Mauer went 1 for 4 with 1 RBI and 2 walks during Friday's game, bring his average down to .344, while Yankee Derek Jeter takes the lead at .345 with his day off.