Morales slaps Twins to victory

MINNEAPOLIS — Pinch-hitter Jose Morales singled home Nick Punto with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Minnesota Twins to a 4-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.

Jason Kubel led off the ninth with a single off Matt Thornton (6-3) and Punto was inserted as a pinch runner. He advanced to third on a single by Brendan Harris, but Tony Pena got Carlos Gomez swinging to take away the sacrifice option.

Morales, the team's third catcher and just recently recalled from Triple-A Rochester, followed with a rope to right-center and was immediately mobbed by teammates.

Michael Cuddyer hit two homers and Jeff Manship was sharp in his first big league start for the Twins, who have won nine of 11 and remained 3.5 games behind Detroit in the AL Central.

Cuddyer tied his career high for homers in a season with 24 and continued his domination of White Sox starter John Danks.

Cuddyer is hitting .481 (13 for 27) with four homers and 10 RBIs in his career against Danks. He hit solo homers in the fifth inning to tie the game and in the seventh to give the Twins a 3-1 lead.

But the normally reliable duo of Jose Mijares and Matt Guerrier faltered in the eighth. Mijares walked Scott Podsednik to lead off the inning and Gordon Beckham followed with a two-run homer off Guerrier to tie the game 3-3.

RED SOX 8, RAYS 4: At St. Petersburg, Fla., Jonathan Papelbon bailed Boston out of an eighth-inning jam and Jason Bay, J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis homered to help the Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the opener of a series crucial to the AL wild-card race.

YANKEES 9, ORIOLES 6: At Baltimore, Jorge Posada homered twice, and Nick Swisher and Eric Hinske hit successive drives in a three-run seventh inning that carried New York to its fifth straight win.

RANGERS 5-5, BLUE JAYS 2-2: At Arlington, Texas, Josh Hamilton snapped out of his extended power drought with two home runs and Brandon McCarthy pitched into the seventh inning of his first start in nearly three months, leading Texas past Toronto for a doubleheader sweep. Chris Davis, who had a tiebreaking, two-run single to help the Rangers win the opener by the same 5-2 score, added a solo homer and an RBI single in the nightcap.

TIGERS 8, INDIANS 5: At Detroit, Placido Polanco and Carlos Guillen homered on successive pitches and Brandon Inge also went deep, lifting the Tigers over Cleveland.

TWINS 4, WHITE SOX 3: At Minneapolis, pinch-hitter Jose Morales singled home Nick Punto with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Twins to their ninth win in 11 games.

MARINERS 3, ANGELS 1: At Seattle, Jose Lopez's two-out double in the seventh inning made rookie Doug Fister a winner and sent the Seattle Mariners to yet another one-run victory over the first-place Los Angeles Angels.

ROYALS 5, ATHLETICS 3: At Oakland, Calif., Alberto Callaspo hit a go-ahead two-run single in the sixth, Kyle Davies struck out six and won consecutive starts for the first time all season and the Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics.