Five cuts: Twins poor front-runners

Justin Morneau has not homered since Sept. 9 and is just 3-for-20 on the homestand. AP

MINNEAPOLIS -- Five things we learned from the Twins' 4-2 loss to the Royals on Saturday afternoon at the Metrodome, extending the AL Central anguish yet another day:

1. White Sox lose, put pressure on Twins
That seems backwards, doesn't it, some Bizarro world version of a pennant race? The fact is, Minnesota has seemed happier, hungrier and more focused playing the role of hunter rather than hunted this season. Chasing Chicago, the Twins looked locked in and played crisp baseball, their ambitions bite-size, their goal achievable. But whenever they edge out front, it's as if someone has switched off their headlights on the darkest of roads, the loneliest of nights. Awkwardly, they start feeling their way forward.

Just since the All-Star break, in games played with the Twins in sole or shared possession of first place in the AL Central, they have gone 2-12 -- including the two losses to Kansas City so far this weekend. Playing from second place, they are 32-20. And now it's too late to get back to their comfort zone; they enter the final day of their regular season leading the White Sox by a half game. Is it possible that Chicago has the Twins right where they want them? "We haven't played very well when we've had [the Central lead]," said Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, who went 1-for-5 on Saturday and hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the seventh. In the ninth, with a man on third, the AL's leader in RBIs flied to left for the final out.

"We've had a lot of chances," he said. "I don't know if we like it better when the pressure's on us and it's do-or-die, or whatever it is. We're trying to do everything we can to win, whether we're behind [in the standings] or not. It's one of those things.

Right-hander Scott Baker -- who will start Sunday with a chance to either win a title outright or force the White Sox to play a make-up game against Detroit on Monday to sort things out -- said: "I guess sometimes it's a little easier to see where you're at when you're chasing somebody than when you're leading. Obviously, they're probably thinking the same thing and feeling the same way we are. Both of us have had ample opportunities the past two or three weeks to put some distance between us."

Now they're down to a day. Or two. Or three, if it takes a tiebreaker Tuesday. Don't be surprised if these guys use all three.

2. Live by the penknife, die by the penknife
Small ball is a beautiful thing, when you're the one getting all pesky. But the Twins felt the sting of bloop hits, extra bases and narrowly missed chances in this one. Up 2-1 in the sixth, with K.C. runners on first and second, Royals left fielder Mark Teahen took a ball just to the right of middle that would have been a sure double play for second baseman Alexi Casilla. But Twins reliever Boof Bonser instinctively reached up for the ball and deflected it into right field, scoring the tying run. In the top of the seventh, with one out and men on second and third, Minnesota had its infield in. That's when Kansas City's Ryan Shealy, jammed by reliever Matt Guerrier, managed to loft the ball just inside the right-field line beyond first base. Morneau, chasing out, saw it tip off the end of his glove, with both runners scoring.

"All the things that go for us went against us," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "The bloops, the slappers, the balls off the glove, they did to us what we do to a lot of other people. ... You don't have to hit it hard, you just have to hit it in the right spot. They did that today four or five times. We take them, and everybody else takes 'em against us when they get a chance."

The Twins were the ones left leaning on their relative big boppers to fix things. But after Morneau's double-play grounder snuffed the seventh, Joe Mauer's sharply hit ball with two on and nobody out in the ninth wound up as Minnesota's fourth rally-killing double play of the game. Nothing makes a small ball team look more slow and lethargic than DPs.

3. Justin Morneau is missing ...
Big, fat pitches. Morneau still hears "MVP!" chants when he steps to the plate at the Metrodome, but he hasn't earned them recently. In 15 games since Sept. 13, the Twins first baseman has hit .238 with just nine RBIs, and he's 3-for-20 on the homestand. He hasn't hit a home run since Sept. 9 and has just four since the end of July.

"I feel like I'm getting good swings, but a lot of times, I'm just missing balls," he said. "For me, I'm just one good swing away. Hit a ball good and all of a sudden I start rolling again." In hopes of finding that ball, Morneau peaked at video a couple of times the past two days, confirming the locations of the ones that got away. "I'm just not doing anything with them," he said.

Said Gardenhire: "We need to pick him up every once in a while too."

4. Scott Baker isn't tuckered
At 165 1/3 innings, Baker already is more than 20 beyond his 2007 workload, has doubled his output from 2006 and has tripled the innings he pitched as a rookie in 2005. Those aren't exactly workhorse numbers, but with Baker getting the start Sunday and his and the Twins' biggest game of the season, it had people wondering about his arm and stamina. "I condition myself to endure this," said the 27-year-old from Louisiana (10-4, 3.59 ERA). "This shouldn't be an issue, as far as I'm concerned. I do work pretty hard. That's why I think I'm not feeling the effects right now."

The Twins are 16-11 in Baker's 27 starts. He is 1-0 against the Royals this season, 4-2 in his career. Journeyman righthander Brandon Duckworth, K.C.'s scheduled starter, is 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA against Minnesota this season with a five-inning no-decision on Sept. 11.

5. Time to put on the foil!
Morneau -- a native of New Westminster, British Columbia -- is a hockey fan and a youth goaltender growing up (make your own jokes about the blown glove save in Saturday's seventh inning). And if you didn't know it from reading his bio, you'd know it from the autographed and personalized 8x10 glossy of the Hanson Brothers taped in his locker. "Jeff, Steve and Jack Hanson" -- or Jeff Carlson, Steve Carlson and Dave Hanson, in real life -- came to fame in the 1977 film, Slap Shot. Which, of course, starred Paul Newman, who died Saturday at age 83. "I heard he passed away," Morneau said after the game. "He was great. There've been a lot of sports movies, that was one of the great movies." Besides that role as Reg Dunlop, Newman starred in films that featured pool (The Hustler and The Color of Money), auto racing (Winning) and boxing (Somebody Up There Likes Me). Few remember that he did, in fact, play a baseball player, too. Newman portrayed pitcher Henry Wiggen in Bang The Drum Slowly -- not in the 1973 Hollywood version that featured a young Robert DeNiro and Michael Moriarty in the Wiggen role, but in a live 1956 production on television's drama anthology The United States Steel Hour. On Sunday, we'll all tune in to the Twins' and the White Sox's presentation of "Win The AL Central Slowly."