Twins 9, Indians 4

Boof Bonser (4.52 ERA) led Minnesota to a 9-4 win over Cleveland Thursday night, pitching 5.2 good innings and allowing only 3 runs on 5 hits, walking three batters and striking out six. After a leadoff walk to center fielder Grady Sizemore in the first, catcher Victor Martinez drove him in on a base hit to right field. Minnesota answered in the third inning on a two-out Justin Morneau double (2 for 6, RBI). Torii Hunter (3 for 6, 4 RBIs) then singled to left on a sharp ground ball, scoring Justin and knotting the game.

Twins: meet the Indian bullpen.

In the top of the fifth, Cliff Lee (4.47 ERA) was replaced by Brian Sikorski (5.46 ERA) after throwing 102 pitches, walking two and striking out three. Lee allowed only 1 run on 5 hits. Sikorski got Cuddy swinging, but then gave up a single to Morneau. One batter later, Rondell White (3 for 5, 2 RBIs) hit his 14th double of the season for the go-ahead run.

The sixth would see another pitching change, this time bringing in righty Andrew Brown (5.14 ERA). After a flyout, a Luis Castillo walk (2 for 5), a Nick Punto double (2 for 5, RBI - awesome defense as well) and an intentional Joe Mauer walk (1 for 4), Brown walked in a run with Cuddyer at the plate and left the bags loaded. 100 runs batted in for our main-man, Cuddy. "Umm...good effort," says Eric Wedge, "now gimme the ball."

Now serving Cleveland relief pitcher #3, Rafael Perez (4.15 ERA). Morneau reached on a forceout attempt and throwing error by second baseman Joe Inglett allowing Punto to score. (Queue circus music). Next batter, next pitcher: Jason Davis (L 3-2, 4.17 ERA), who ends the scoring with a pop out and a K.

Boof was replaced with two outs and two men on in the sixth by Jesse Crain (W 4-5, 3.82 ERA) who would end up with both the blown save and the win. No fair, I know. But that's how the cookie, she crumbles. The first pitch from Crain to Andy Marte leaves the field and ties the game at 4 a piece.

But never fear Twins fans. Our boys put together two straight one-out singles by Jason Bartlett (2 for 4) and Castillo before Davis threw the inevitable wild pitch to advance the runners and toss out the idea of an inning-ending double play. Punto then scored Bartlett on a hard-hit sac fly to center, which would of course bring another pitching change: Juan Lara (0.00 ERA). He ended the inning with a Joe Mauer lineout.

Crain then pitched a scoreless seventh inning before Fernando Cabrera (5.04 ERA - the seventh Indians pitcher to step foot on the mound) gave up three more runs in the top of the eighth. He started by nailing Cuddyer in the ribs with a fastball; his first hit batsman of the year, obviously unintentional. Cuddy then stole second, knowing Cabrera wasn't paying attention to the hobbled runner at first. A batter later, Hunter smoked his 25th homerun and 80th RBI of the year 422 feet to deep left field, giving the Twins a 3 run lead. Rondell, not to be out done of course, smashed one to deep left-center, cracking the barrel of his hot bat, but only carrying it 419 feet. After Phil Nevin walked, we wouldn't want to leave anyone in the bullpen feeling unwanted. So, Edward Mujica (3.31 ERA) joined in the fun and faced three batters but didn't allow any more runs.

Hunter and White go back-to-back

Juan Rincon (2.91 ERA) entered the game and pitched a scoreless eighth with a walk and a strikeout, giving the Twins a chance to score one more insurance run in the top of the ninth off a Hunter RBI double. Rincon was replaced by Pat Neshek (2.27 ERA) in the ninth who ended the game quickly with two strikeouts and a pop out.

VS.

The Twins put Johan Santana on the mound in the second of this four game series at Jacobs Field against Fausto Carmona (1-9, 6.24 ERA) and the Indians. Johan leads the league in strikeouts (230), wins (18), ERA (.275), and innings pitched (212.2). He has only 5 losses this year, all coming before the Mid-Summer Classic. As far as Carmona goes, for the Indians' bullpen's sake, maybe he can go more than four innings, even though Bert called a beatdown? Probably not.

With both Chicago and Detroit having the day off Thursday, Minnesota moves within one game of the Tigers for the Division Lead and gain another on the White Sox, who now trail the Twins by two.

Batting Title Watch: Joe Mauer (.347), going 1 for 4 with two walks Thursday evening leads Yankee Derek Jeter (.346) by a fraction of a point in the race (conscious or not) for the American League Batting Champion.