Twins tighten up AL Central race with 'little ball' win over ChiSox

MINNEAPOLIS -- Ozzie Guillen was merely being the great and wondrous Oz, entertaining a larger than usual media throng at a ballpark he hadn't visited in nearly two months. Whistling past the graveyard? That would be a little too strong, unless the trend established Tuesday night in the Minnesota Twins' 9-3 victory over the first-place Chicago White Sox continues for another day or -- look out below -- two.

Still, there was a little "he doth protest too much" feel to one of Guillen's topics in the pregame dugout at the Metrodome.

"We're in first place. They're the ones who have to worry about us," the White Sox manager said of the chasing Twins, not long before their three-game showdown in the AL Central began. "We worried about them in the past, when we were behind them. Now they can worry about us.

"I'm satisfied with where we are right now. We're -- " Guillen held the tips of his index finger and thumb about an inch apart " -- to doing something real nice."

This close, sure, we got it. But no closer, not after the Twins whacked a game off Chicago's lead, cut the gap atop the division to 1½ games and froze the White Sox's magic number at five with five -- or maybe six (makeup game in Detroit) or maybe seven (tiebreaker) -- games left. Guillen was 100 percent right in his math but 100 percent wrong in his fret assessment, especially after the Twins played the way they're known for. It's the style that has earned them Guillen's admiration and his pet name ("piranhas"), those smallish tactics that have earned them four Central titles in five years and provide comfort and margin when big hits and other heroics go missing.

"Our offense was just all over the place," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We ran around the bases. Slapped it around. Got some bloops. ... I know I'm missing something. It doesn't mean anything if we don't go out and do it again. But, yeah, it was pretty exciting. I won't even need bubbles in the hot tub tonight. I'll bubble the whole thing myself."

The White Sox won't need bubbles, not in Minneapolis anyway. It would have taken a sweep for them to pop corks in the visitors' clubhouse Thursday night. That's out of reach now after another loss of a thousand cuts, the Twins beating them under their Teflon roof for the sixth time in seven meetings by taking an extra base here, hitting the cutoff man there and keeping the pressure on start to finish. Pressure that builds and pounds and warps.

"Our team is excellent at that," starter Scott Baker said after giving up five hits and one run in seven innings. "Not only does it put pressure on [at that moment] but the pressure is on the entire time. We might bunt -- you never know. Knowing that pressure is on [you as a] pitcher, it has to change your approach. You have no choice."

Maybe it means a heavier diet of fastballs for the next man at the plate, if the runners aboard can agitate. Maybe it spooks a glance, a flinch, a hesitation. There was a play in the fifth inning Tuesday when Twins left fielder Delmon Young snared a fly ball, then threw sharply behind Ken Griffey Jr. After the future Hall of Famer had to dive to avoid being doubled up, Griffey gave Young a look. The Twins player shrugged and held out both hands, as if to say, "What?"

It jostled Griffey out of a comfort zone, ever so slightly. It's what Minnesota does.

"'Twins ball,' if you will," said shortstop Nick Punto. "We got some big hits, but for the most part, we were just dumping the ball in here and there."

The game was full of small moments, like Young going second to third on Brian Buscher's fly ball in the fourth inning, followed by Punto's bunt to squeeze him in for a 4-1 lead. Punto then stole second and scored on Carlos Gomez's single to left.

Baker wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the next half inning, setting up A.J. Pierzynski with a pair of breaking balls before coaxing a fastball groundout that Punto -- noticing Alexi Casilla not covering second -- double-clutched and got to first in time. Baker's tidy performance (102 pitches, one walk, four strikeouts) made sure it was Guillen, rather than Gardenhire, who blinked first and got deep into his bullpen.

Even a few of the Twins' big moments were born of small ones: Jason Kubel had endured a 3-for-19 road trip, yet, amid some second-guessing, was right back in the lineup behind Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. He wound up homering twice, including the two-run shot in the second that erased Chicago's early lead, and tripling to lead off the resourceful, pivotal fourth.

"I watched every one of those at-bats," Gardenhire said. "Did you watch the videotape? I saw seven or eight quality at-bats in there. Kubel's my designated hitter."

Kubel's two home runs got him to 20 this season. His blast in the seventh inning preceded Young's, the Twins' second back-to-back set of 2008. It was a lot of noise for a team with half of Chicago's power and it felt good, beating the White Sox at their own game.

Beating the White Sox at the Twins' game felt even better, though.

"That's how we have success, with all the little things. Execution," Gardenhire said. "When we've shot ourselves in the foot this year, it's when we haven't done those things. We know what it feels like to play the California Angels. They can beat you with home runs, the big guys who get the big hits. But they have such a balanced ball club and they keep coming, because they've got little guys who can do little things too."

That's how these big journeys begin, with the small steps. About the distance now between Ozzie Guillen's thumb and index finger.