With Johan Santana on the mound the Twins led the entire game, but the victory came at a cost. Shannon Stewart and Torii Hunter left the game with foot injuries leaving an already thin outfield in even worse shape. Nick Punto finished the game in center field. Stewart has already been placed on the DL.

Santana rebounded from two straight bad outings by allowing just 2 runs and 5 hits through 7 innings. He gave up a solo homer to Travis Hafner in the 2nd inning and the other run came in the 6th on a Ronnie Belliard sac fly that scored Ramon Vazquez. Santana struck out 7 and walked no one in the game. Rincon pitched a scoreless eighth and Dennys Reyes did his best impersonation of Joe Nathan by striking out the side in the ninth.

Twins batters scored 6 runs on 13 hits and 2 Cleveland errors. They got on the board right away with 2 runs in the first inning. Luis Castillo reached base on an error and Nick Punto doubled in Castillo and moved to third on a thowing error which setup a sac fly RBI for Mike Redmond.

In the fourth inning Justin Morneau led off with a double and later scored on a Jason Tyner single. A Michael Cuddyer single in the fifth scored Nick Punto. In the eighth Morneau hit his 24th homer of the season—a solo shot. A string of singles later in the inning scored one more run and took away the save opportunity for Joe Nathan.

Game Notes

• Morneau hit a single, double and homerun. He's batting .304 with 24 HR and 75 RBI.
• Jason Bartlett was 3-4 (all singles) in the game.
• Johan Santana earned his 10th victory of the season.
• Jason Tyner was 2-4 in his second game since being called up.

Rondell White returning

The addition of Shannon Stewart to the DL means that there's a roster spot to fill and Rondell White is really the only guy available. In 13 games at AAA Rochester White batted only .235 with 1 walk and 1 homerun. While I didn't see him play in AAA, the numbers provide no indication that he's going to be any better than he was in April and May.

There's no conclusive word on Torii Hunter. He was going to have an MRI Sunday morning to determine the extent of the injury, but according the the Star Tribune he had "severe pain shooting through his left foot." That left foot is the one he broke last year.

The All-Star break was supposed to provide time to heal everyone, but in just 3 games since the season resumed we've learned that Jason Kubel has sore knees, Lew Ford and Shannon Stewart have gone on the DL, and Torii Hunter might be headed in that direction as well.

Say goodbye to any hopes of trading Stewart.