Twins tighten division race with Tigers

Minnesota Twins batter Jason Kubel watches his two-run double against the Toronto Blue Jays during the third inning of their MLB American League baseball game in Toronto September 8, 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Minnesota Twins roared to life for five runs in the eighth inning to defeat the Detroit Tigers 6-2 and move within two games of the visitors in the American League Central Division on Saturday.

"We said the big goal was to get the Tigers within reach and then play them head to head, and that's when we can make up ground," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters.

"Well, we won the first two (of the weekend series). The job's not done."

Jason Kubel's two-run bases-loaded single and Michael Cuddyer's three-run homer in the eighth sparked the Twins (76-72) to their sixth consecutive victory, though it was Orlando Cabrera's fly ball earlier in the inning that set up the victory.

Tigers outfielder Don Kelly lost sight of the ball in the lights of the Metrodome roof, allowing it to fall for a double and giving Minnesota runners on second and third with one out.

"It went up, it went through the lights and I lost it," Kelly said.

After Joe Mauer was intentionally walked, Kubel connected on a bloop single to drive in Denard Span and Cabrera to give the Twins a 3-2 lead.

"That's our 10th player on the field for us, the roof," Span said. "We'll take it."

With the loss, division-leading Detroit (78-70) suffered its third successive defeat and dropped to 3-7 in its past 10 games to tighten the closest post-season race in Major League Baseball.

The Tigers had been cruising with a 2-1 lead behind starter and loser Justin Verlander (16-9) until Kubel's game-turning single to left drove Verlander from the mound.

Cuddyer then cleared the bases on the third pitch from reliever Brandon Lyon with his home run to left center field.

Minnesota's Jesse Crain (6-4) picked up the win by pitching a scoreless eighth inning after starter Carl Pavano allowed 11 hits but only two runs over seven innings while striking out four.

"I was fighting myself early on," said Pavano, who worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning.

"There was a lot of pressure with all those people on. I'm looking to get ground balls, and one gets in the hole, one is just down the line. It was getting kind of hairy for a while."

Verlander was tagged for nine hits and five runs. He struck out six and walked two.

He threw a season-high 128 pitches and was still throwing hard fastballs late in the game.

"The guy's a stud, man," Cuddyer said.

"That's what studs do. They go back out there in the eighth with a hundred and some pitches and say 'I'm either going to win it or I'm going to lose it'. Gotta respect a guy like that."

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)