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      MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Joe Mauer put his smooth batting-title swing
on a fifth-inning fastball from Gavin Floyd and watched it soar to
left field, as it has so many times this season at Minnesota's new
ballpark.

      Another fly ball to the warning track, he figured. Ah, but this
time, the ball reached the seats.

      Mauer had four hits, two RBIs and his first regular season home
run at Target Field, leading the Twins past the Chicago White Sox
7-6 on Wednesday night to increase their season-high lead in the AL
Central to five games.


      "I've hit a lot of balls that way that have died, so it's good
to get one over the wall," said Mauer, who is batting .446 in 112
at-bats since the All-Star break with 15 doubles and 30 RBIs.

      The Twins trailed 5-3 entering the bottom of the fifth against
Floyd (8-10), but Mauer's opposite-field solo shot cut into the
lead before a three-run sixth sealed it.

      The Twins have won nine straight at home and 24 of their last 31
overall. Mauer, the reigning AL MVP, has been a huge part of that,
raising his batting average to .335 during his midsummer surge.
This was his eighth homer of the season, down from a career-high 28
last year, due in part to the deceptively deep power alleys at
Target Field.

      "It messes on you mentally," Mauer acknowledged. "You try to
do different things that are out of what makes you do well. Yeah I
fell into that trap a little bit, but you try to just have good
at-bats and stick with your game."

      Matt Capps gave up a run the ninth one night after blowing the
save, but he recovered in time for his 31st save of the season -
five with Minnesota. Jeff Manship (1-0) and Jesse Crain got six
outs in relief for a struggling Francisco Liriano.


      Andruw Jones hit a three-run homer for the White Sox, but they
fell to 15-17 since their 26-5 run that stretched one game past the
All-Star break. They are 4-10 this season against the Twins, who
improved to 33-17 against the Central and reached 20 games above
.500 for the first time in nearly two years.

      The Twins, who had to rally from big deficits to win division
titles in 2006 and 2009, were wary of expressing too much
confidence.


      "It's not that we have their number," right fielder Jason
Kubel said. "We've just been playing well."

      Liriano walked four and needed 106 pitches to get through five
innings, slamming his glove and cap down in disgust when he reached
the dugout at the end of his last inning. The Sox got their fifth
run when he fielded Carlos Quentin's comebacker and threw to second
for a force, allowing Alex Rios to race home and score when the
relay to first was a bit late to get the double play.

      But Liriano was all over the place, giving up consecutive walks
to start the second before Jones smashed his 17th homer into the
bullpen for a 3-2 lead right after pitching coach Rick Anderson
came out for a visit.


      That ended a streak of 96 1-3 innings by Liriano without giving
up a long ball, the second-most in Twins history. Bert Blyleven
went 99 innings in 1974-75. Liriano has allowed only three homers
this season.

      Manager Ozzie Guillen was upset the White Sox didn't take
further advantage of Liriano's wildness.

      "We should've scored more runs," Guillen said. "We couldn't
get it done."

      The players tried to stay positive.

      "There are so many games left, and teams go on streaks," Floyd
said. "We all believe that we can still do it. There's no doubt
about that. So we need to keep battling."

      But this was another unquestionably stinging defeat.

      "We've got like a month left, basically," Jones said. "We
need to go out there and see what happens.

      Jim Thome struck out three times, but he walked after Michael
Cuddyer's chalk-dust double down the third-base line to start the
sixth. Delmon Young doubled in Cuddyer to tie the game at 5, and
Danny Valencia hit a grounder that shortstop Alexei Ramirez grabbed
with an off-balance scoop.

      Ramirez fired across his body to try to get the not-so-sleek
Thome, who was thrown out at the plate on Tuesday, but the ball
arrived home late and off target while a sure out at first base was
wasted. J.J. Hardy's sacrifice fly, caught by Juan Pierre as he
banged into the left-field wall, drove in Young for a two-run lead.
     

Gallery

Sports

Minnesota Twins

Joe Mauer put his smooth batting-title swing
on a fifth-inning fastball from Gavin Floyd and watched it soar to
left field, as it has so many times this season at Minnesota's new
ballpark.

Mauer's power helps Twins beat White Sox 7-6

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