Last night in his post-game press conference Ron Gardenhire was clear about the need for starters to pitch deeper into games. Kevin Slowey had just turned in a five inning start and Matt Guerrier gave up the lead late in the game.

Scott Baker may have been the least likely to answer Gardy's call, but he did just that on Tuesday night. He cruised through 7 innings before giving up his first walk of the game in the eighth inning followed by his fourth hit allowed. Baker was charged with the 1 run that scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly given up by Pat Neshek, but he turned in his possibly his best start of the season (his 8 1/3 IP in Milwaukee was good too).

Baker struck out a career-high 9 batters in the game, with 7 of the K's coming in the first four innings. Baker has now had 2 decent starts since a rough stretch of starts that brought his ERA soaring to over 7 and quite possibly had him within 1 poor start of losing his job last week. Patience often pays off with young pitchers, and it's nice to see Baker get a good opportunity to prove himself.

With the injuries mounting, we knew the lineup would look a bit different. I was a bit surprised to see Luis Castillo starting after Roy Halladay stepped on his hand on Monday night. With Jeff Cirillo having soreness in his knee and Justin Morneau still out with the bruised lung, Michael Cuddyer got his first start outside of RF since last season.

The Twins first run of the game almost didn't happen. Jason Kubel doubled with Cuddyer at second and Torii Hunter at first. Cuddyer nearly repeated his somersault tumble in Tampa last month after rounding third base. Fortunately he was able to catch his balance and came across the plate. Hunter was thrown out on a close play to end the inning. After Mike Redmond flied out to right, Hunter's back pocket / batting glove was tagged by catcher Greg Zaun. Hunter didn't think he was out and Gardy came out to argue it too before being thrown out of the game. After Cuddyer's ejection over the weekend, Gardenhire may not have had a choice but to intercede in Hunter's argument before Hunter was thrown out in a close game.

The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the 12th. Cuddyer started things with a single after Joe Mauer's ground out. With two outs, Lew Ford kept the inning alive with a single to the left side of the field. Mike Redmond was walked to load the bases and Jeff Cirillo was called on to pinch hit for Jason Tyner. Cirillo fouled off a few pitches before blooping a single that fell in just past the outstretched glove of the diving Vernon Wells.

Game Notes

• Tyner and Kubel had the only extra-base hits for the Twins, both with doubles. Kubel probably shouldn't have been credited with the double since it's unlikely he would've run had the throw not come home.
• Cuddyer scored both of the Twins' runs
• Joe Nathan pitched 2 perfect inning and struck out 3.
• Juan Rincon pitched a scoreless 12th and got his 3rd win of the season.

Detroit finally lost a game on Tuesday night. With Cleveland winning, there's now a 2-way tie atop the AL Central with the Twins trailing by 5.5 games.