The big story of Monday’s series opener against the White Sox was the sixth inning incident at first base in which it appeared A.J. Pierzynski purposely stepped on Justin Morneau’s foot while crossing first after hitting into an inning-ending double play. It was the second time of the day A.J. had come suspiciously close to Morneau’s foot and it sent manager Ron Gardenhire into a tirade against first base umpire Greg Gibson.

Gibson had apparently told the Twins dugout to stop shouting about the incident which Gardenhire explained in the post-game to be the cause for his argument. Pierzynski claimed that it was unintentional if he did in fact clip the foot of Morneau. Both Gardy and Morneau are saying it’s not a big deal. What ensued immediately following the incident was a big deal though. Trailing 4-3 heading into the sixth, the Twins put 5 runs on the board in the bottom of the inning to seal an 10-4 victory in the opener.

A day after Morneau carried the Twins to victory, he did almost nothing at the plate in the 10 run effort. Instead it was the “piranhas” that did most of the damage. Jason Bartlett started off the Twins 3-run rally in the 3rd inning by getting hit by a pitch. He also started off the 6th inning rally with a single to left field. Jason Tyner, batting ninth as the DH, had 3 hits and a walk on the day. Nick Punto provided 2 RBI on 3 hits. It was Mike Redmond that provided the damaging blow to the White Sox. His bases loaded double in the sixth provided 3 runs and blew the game open for the Twins.

Game Notes

• Johan Santana wasn’t at his best. He allowed 2 home runs to bring his season total to 13. He did, however, give the 8 innings and allowed the bullpen another day of rest.
• Jason Miller pitched another 1-2-3 inning in his second big-league appearance in the 9th.
• Morneau’s 10-game hit streak came to an end.

I can’t remember a time this season when the Twins seemed to play such flawless baseball on two days in a row. Most importantly, Cleveland and Detroit lost allowing the Twins to close the gap just a little bit more. They now trail the White Sox by just 1 game and Cleveland by 6.5 games. They’ve also worked their way back to a .500 record at 25-25. Last season it took them until game 68 to reach that mark.

It’s official, Ortiz to bullpen

The team officially announced that Ramon Ortiz would be moving to the bullpen. There is still no official word on who will fill the vacant spot on Friday night in Oakland, but the favorite appears to be Kevin Slowey, who has been dominant in Rochester so far. Matt Garza, who was a favorite to be the next starter coming into the season will now have seen Scott Baker and Slowey move past him to the rotation. Glen Perkins also got the early call to the majors in a bullpen role. Garza has certainly pitched well enough, but the other options have been just a little better. That’s certainly not a problem that the Twins management is complaining about.