After Saturday night’s 13 inning game that completely exhausted the Twins bullpen, the Twins needed Carlos Silva to come up with a good start and to go deep into the game. He did both. He lasted into the eighth before giving up his second run of the game and being pulled in favor of Juan Rincon. After allowing a run in the second inning he was pretty much on auto-pilot the rest of the way. After a few rough starts, Silva’s return to form couldn’t have come at a better time.

Silva’s counterpart, A.J. Burnett looked good through most of the game. Most Twins hitters struggled to do much against him at the plate while he struck out 8 through 8 innings. For a stretch of the game the hitters were putting together strong at-bats and at least making him throw a lot of pitchers.

The run production for the Twins was provided completely by Justin Morneau. With two outs and bases loaded in the third inning, Morneau hit a Luis Castillo style chopper off the plate to Burnett. He then did a Nick Punto impersonation by sliding head first into first. I’ve long been an opponent of Punto’s sliding into first, but seeing Morneau do it makes me ill. The last thing the Twins need is Morneau jamming a finger or shoulder with a pointless slide.

The play worked out as Burnett’s throw sailed high and down by the bullpens. Two runs scored on the play to put the Twins in the lead for good. In the sixth inning Morneau provided some more padding by blasting a home run into the upper deck of right field. Morneau pushed his homerun total to 15 and notched his 39th RBI of the season.

Game Notes

• Silva improved his record to 3-5 and allowed 2 runs through 7 1/3 innings. He has a 4.22 ERA on the season.
• Joe Nathan only had to throw 10 pitches to record his 11th save of the season.
• Nick Punto was the only Twin not named Morneau who had a hit. Michael Cuddyer walked twice and Jeff Cirillo walked once.

In the Central

The Indians finished off the sweep of the Tigers to retain their 7.5 game lead over the Twins. The Twins are now within 5.5 games of the Tigers and just 2 games behind the White Sox who will come to the dome for three games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The series will begin with a good matchup of Johan Santana vs. Jose Contreras.

Ramon Ortiz

Ortiz hasn’t lost his job yet, but I’d be surprised if the announcement doesn’t come before Ortiz’s next schedule start on Friday in Oakland. Both Kevin Slowey and Matt Garza are coming off good starts. Slowey struck out 7 and walked none in eight shutout innings on Friday night. On Sunday Matt Garza allowed just 1 run through 7 innings in a 1-0 loss to Durham. Garza is still walking too many batters (4 in the last outing) which makes me think Slowey might be the guy to go with right now.