Twins muster enough offense to edge Phillies

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Twins returned home from a trip to Washington, where they had trouble scoring runs, and continued that trend Tuesday night against Philadelphia at Target Field but still managed to beat the Phillies 3-2 in an efficient, well-pitched game.

With the score tied at 2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Twins manufactured the winning run.

Jamey Carroll, who snapped an 0-for-24 slump with two hits in the game, walked and then took second on Joe Mauer's single to right. Carroll went to third on a fielder's choice and scored on Justin Morneau's single. It was Morneau's third hit and second RBI of the night.

"Very exciting win," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Very big at-bat by Mr. Morneau. Jamey Carroll getting on and Morney banging one up the middle off a tough lefty out there. Some big hits -- big RBIs which kind of broke our mojo from the road trip where we didn't get those hits -- we got a couple tonight ... a good win."

Starters Cole Hamels for the Phillies and P.J. Walters for the Twins were both effective in the early going.

Walters, in his fourth start since being called up May 25, pitched 7 1/3 innings, giving up six hits and no earned runs with five strikeouts. He has become a stopgap for the Twins' rotation that has struggled for much of the season.

"My starter was fantastic," Gardenhire said of Walters. "He threw the ball great. It was a great opportunity for him. Unfortunately, we couldn't hold it there, but it was a good ballgame."

Walters, who did not figure in the decision, deserved a better fate. He gave up two singles in the eighth. Relief pitcher Brian Duensing struck out Jimmy Rollins, but Ryan Howard delivered a two-out single to right to tie the score at 2.

Duensing, who picked up the win, got the dangerous Dominic Brown to ground out with two men on to end the inning.

Twins closer Glen Perkins came on in the ninth to secure his 14th save.

Hamels, meanwhile, shut out the Twins for three innings on two hits, no walks and three strikeouts. But he ran into trouble in the fourth, giving up four consecutive hits, before settling down. In six innings, he gave up two earned runs, seven hits and no walks with five strikeouts.

"Hammels did fine," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "He was throwing some close pitches. I don't know, I am not saying they were strikes or balls or whatever, but he had a couple innings where . . . I looked up in the third inning and he had close to 60 pitches. And that tells you right there he's not going to finish the game. But he was throwing pretty good."

The Phillies opened the scoring in the third when John Mayberry reached base on an error to Morneau at first base. Mayberry took second on Humberto Quintero's groundout and scored on a Michael Young single to right.

"We hit some balls pretty hard," Manuel said of Walters' performance. "We hit a ball into left field, a guy made a good catch on it. We had two or three balls on him. If they go, we could have been in business. But I felt like I liked our chances against him. Give him credit, he did good. He did a pretty good job."

The Twins returned fire in the fourth on three straight doubles by Josh Willingham, Morneau and same-day call-up Oswaldo Arcia.

Morneau had been in an extra-base hit drought and his drive came close to being a home run.

Arcia's blast nearly did the same, bouncing at the base of the wall behind former Twin Ben Revere, giving the Twins a 2-1 lead.

"They got on some fastballs; they hit the ball," Manuel said. "They hit the ball hard."

NOTES: In their previous 16 games, the Twins' bullpen has posted a 1.90 ERA (52 innings pitched and 11 earned runs) with opponents hitting .185. ... The Twins are 6-6 against Philadelphia all time and have won three of the past five games. ... Coming into the game, the Phillies (who lead the majors with 24 home runs) had at least one home run in each of their past 14 games -- their longest streak since 18 straight in 2008. The streak ended against the Twins. ... The Phillies have grounded into a National League-leading 54 double-plays this season. ... The Twins are leading the majors in double plays turned with an average of 1.23 per game.