Early on, Wednesday's game had all the makings of another disappointing home loss for the Twins. A couple miscues in the first inning put the Twins behind by two against the White Sox, who had their dominating ace on the hill and looking strong.
Fortunately, the Twins were able to scrape a pair of runs across in the third and got the go-ahead RBI in the fourth when Justin Morneau snuck a grounder through the middle. Pavano settled in, pitching through the seventh without further incident, and the bullpen was perfect over the final two innings as the Twins avoided their first sweep of the season and secured an important victory heading into an imposing East Coast road trip.
Morneau, who finished 2-for-3, also drew his league-leading 29th walk in the game. His RBI single -- perhaps the game's biggest hit -- came after a long and hard-fought at-bat against the left-hander Danks. The Twins' first baseman, now batting .357/.486/.652 with eight home runs and 23 RBI, has easily been the Twins' best offensive performer up to this point and has helped shed any concerns that his back would negatively affect his performance.
Delmon Young, who was being honored in many corners of the blogosphere with "Delmon Young Day," lived up to his billing by going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles. Young is hitting .287 with a .337 on-base percentage, but what's really encouraging is his .479 slugging percentage. Young led the team in extra-base hits during spring training, and now he's showing that the power showing was no mirage. If he can keep knocking the ball around, it will be huge for the bottom part of this lineup.
The Twins get the day off tomorrow before heading to New York for a huge series against the Yankees.
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