Danny Valencia's heavy lifting reduces Twins' number

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins have looked to a number of players to provide big contributions as they continue to close in on their sixth American League Central title in the last nine seasons.

And rookie third baseman Danny Valencia has certainly done his part recently in helping Minnesota to nick away at its magic number, as he did again on Saturday afternoon.

Valencia hit a tiebreaking three-run homer in the sixth inning against the A's to help carry the Twins to a 4-2 victory before a sell-out crowd of 40,847 at Target Field.

The victory reduced the Twins' magic number to six games, and the White Sox loss to the Tigers a bit later trimmed that number to five.

The day after tallying two of the Twins' five hits in the series-opening loss to Oakland, which included a solo home run that scored Minnesota's only run, Valencia came up big with his bat once again on Saturday.

With the game knotted at 1 in the sixth inning, Joe Mauer drew a walk and Michael Cuddyer singled to put two runners on with one out when Valencia stepped to the plate. On a 3-1 fastball from A's starter Dallas Braden, Valencia belted his fourth home run of the season in the left-field seats to give the Twins a 4-1 lead.

"He gave me a good pitch," said Valencia. "I had the same type of situation in the at-bat before, and knew maybe he was going to try to do something different this time. I was lucky he threw me a fastball in, and that's what I was looking for."

Valencia's home run was enough run support for starter Kevin Slowey, who held the A's to two runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings to pick up his career-high 13th win.

At a time when the Twins are dealing with injuries to Denard Span and Jason Kubel, the team once again is counting on other hitters in the lineup to produce. And Valencia has been playing a big role in that, particularly over the past week.

With his 2-for-4 performance on Saturday, Valencia is batting .450 in his last six games. He's been delivering in clutch situations as well, as he's hit .431 with runners in scoring position this year and he's hitting .456 at Target Field -- the highest home average for any player in baseball with a minimum of 100 plate appearances.

"He's made a difference in a lot of games, and single-handedly won a handful," Slowey said of Valencia. "It's been great for us. He was a guy that everybody knew he had the talent and it would just be a matter of time of getting up here and getting some repetitions."

Third base has been a merry-go-round position for the Twins since Corey Koskie left as a free agent after the 2004 season. But in Valencia, the Twins may have found a long-term solution at the position and -- perhaps even better -- he's starting to demonstrate the power stroke of a third baseman.

After not hitting a single homer in the Minors this season prior to his callup in early June, Valencia has started to see his bat heat up with the Twins. Valencia now has four home runs, 17 doubles and a .467 slugging percentage in 265 plate appearances in the Majors.

"People have to step up when you have injuries and we were all hopeful about this kid," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He didn't have great numbers in the Minor Leagues as far as power numbers [this year], but you get up here, see a few things and he's worked really hard on driving the ball, using the whole field. We know the power is there, we've seen it before. He's come up here and worked his tail off and done a good job for us."

The A's had taken a 1-0 lead in the second inning off Slowey after Landon Powell homered with one out. On a 3-2 pitch from Slowey, Powell belted a 393-foot shot to right field for his second home run of the season.

Powell's home run was one of only two hits that the A's would tally over the first five innings, and it was Oakland's catcher who delivered both as he led off the fifth with a ground-rule double to left-center field.

Holding on to the one-run lead, Braden kept the Twins' offense quiet until the fifth inning when Minnesota knotted the game at 1. J.J. Hardy drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third on Drew Butera's double to the left-field corner. Rookie Ben Revere didn't tally his first Major League hit, but his groundout to second base gave him his first RBI and scored the tying run.

Braden still managed to work his way through the Twins' lineup fairly well until the sixth inning when he made the mistake to Valencia.

"A 3-1 ball ran back over, I'm trying to stick it in there," Braden said. "That was kind of the tale later in the game for me, in the fourth, fifth, sixth -- just having to make pitches, starting to labor. I could just feel the fatigue. I didn't really finish the pitch, and he took advantage."

Valencia has been making good on opportunities to help the Twins as they not only lock down another AL Central title but also make a push for the best record in the AL, which would provide home-field advantage in the postseason.

The third baseman just seems thankful to be getting the chance to make an impact in such a race.

"The goal here is obviously to make the playoffs and go deep in the playoffs," Valencia said. "I couldn't ask for a better situation for myself being a first-year guy, a rookie. And having the confidence from the coaching staff to put me out there every day has been great."



(mlb.com)