MINNEAPOLIS —

Most of the current Minnesota Twins weren’t alive the last time the team struggled this badly. Kevin Slowey even dipped into Greek mythology to describe the frustration.

Ichiro Suzuki stopped Slowey’s no-hitter with a two-out infield single in the sixth inning and added an RBI double in the seventh, spurring the Seattle Mariners to a 5-4 victory Wednesday night in Minnesota, the 11th straight defeat for the Twins.

“At this point in this clubhouse, it’s like we’re watching the fate of Sisyphus himself. Get to the top of that hill and just can’t seem to figure it out, so it’s been pretty tough,” Slowey said, referencing the mythical king who, the story went, was punished for eternity by pushing a boulder up a steep hill only to watch it roll back down to the bottom each time.

This is the third-longest losing streak in Minnesota’s 51-season history, behind a 14-game skid in 1982 and the 13 in a row they dropped in 1961, the first year here after the franchise moved west from Washington.

The Twins (59-95) still need two more wins to top their worst finish in Minnesota, 60-102 in 1982, and they’ve already secured the third-worst record the club has ever had.

With dozens of millions of dollars in high-salaried players long done for the season due to a variety of injuries, this pieced-together bunch of middling prospects, former first-round draft picks and the few veterans healthy enough to play has been figuratively banging their heads against the wall trying to end this September slide and finish on a less-dour note.

“I’d much rather win than get three or four hits,” said rookie first baseman Chris Parmelee, who had three more hits, including an RBI single. He’s batting .413 with nine RBIs in 13 games since being brought up from Double-A New Britain.

Mariners closer Brandon League, who escaped a ninth-inning, no-out, bases-loaded situation to preserve the win the night before, gave up a two-out RBI single to Trevor Plouffe before retiring Brian Dinkelman on a roller in front of the plate with two runners on.

League has 36 saves in 41 attempts this season. This was the first run he’s allowed against the Twins in 16 innings.

Trayvon Robinson’s two-run, two-out single in the seventh inning gave the Mariners the lead and sent Slowey (0-7) off the mound. He has lost all seven starts since he was recalled from Triple-A and reinserted in the rotation he helped anchor the past three-plus years. The right-hander began the season in the bullpen, got hurt and was sent to the minors to rehabilitate until returning a month ago.

Suzuki was the only baserunner to reach over the first five innings, when the shortstop Plouffe dropped the ball for an error while taking it out of his glove to start his throw. Kyle Seager and Dustin Ackley followed Suzuki’s single in the sixth with consecutive sharply hit doubles, and Slowey’s lead was suddenly gone.

Slowey hasn’t walked a batter in his last 22 innings, and he struck out six, but this was another familiar start – breezing through the early innings and hitting a big bump.

“I’m going to look at the first five innings and try to repeat that. We’re running out of time. I’m running out of time,” he said.

Plouffe grounded into a 1-2-3 double play with no outs and the bases loaded in the fifth against reliever Jeff Gray, and Dinkelman grounded out to end that inning. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was upset that Plouffe wasn’t more patient.

“That guy was in trouble, and we took him right out of trouble,” Gardenhire said.

The Twins went 4 for 18 with runners in scoring position, and they’re 24 for 151 – a .159 batting average – while losing 16 of their last 17 games.

Mariners starter Michael Pineda, in his final appearance of what has been a fine rookie season, gave up six hits, two walks and two runs while striking out two over four innings. He threw 81 pitches.

This was Pineda’s 28th start, and the 22-year-old Dominican finished with 173 strikeouts in 171 innings with a 3.74 ERA.

“I’m very, very proud of me, because I finished strong,” Pineda said.

The Twins won’t be able to say that about this season.

NOTES: The Twins passed the 3 million mark in paid attendance for the second straight season and the third in franchise history. Their first was 1988. … Of the 29 players suited up for this series for the Mariners, 17 of them weren’t with the team when they visited Minnesota in May. … RH Anthony Swarzak (3-7) pitches for the Twins in the series finale, the last day game of the season at Target Field, against Mariners RH Blake Beaven (5-5). Beaven is coming off an eight-inning shutout victory over division-leading Texas. Swarzak hasn’t won since Aug. 3.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – The Minnesota Twins open a two-game series against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday, with hopes of getting out of the division basement.

The Twins (59-87) have lost three games and eight of their last nine. Carl Pavano will start the series opener in Kansas City. The Royals (62-86), who are coming off back-to-back wins over Seattle, will send Bruce Chen to the mound.

The Twins trail the Royals by two games for the worst record in the American League Central, and hold only a one game edge over the AL-worst Baltimore Orioles.
 

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins offense was slumping badly and missing Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer going into the third game of the series against the Detroit Tigers.

With the superb Justin Verlander on the mound for the Tigers, the third no-hitter of his career wouldn’t have come as a surprise.

But the struggling Twins made Verlander earn his 20th victory of the season in a 6-4 loss to the Tigers on Saturday.

Verlander (20-5) gave up four runs on eight hits with six strikeouts and three walks to become the first pitcher to win 20 games before the end of August since Arizona’s Curt Schilling in 2002.

Minnesota’s abysmal offense made it tougher on the flamethrower than expected. Luke Hughes had a home run, a double and three RBIs and Jason Repko put one of Verlander’s vaunted fastballs into the upper deck in left field for his first homer of the season.

“You can get after him,” Hughes said. “He comes at you with a fastball. You know he’s going to come at you. He’s got electrifying stuff. He’s no easy task, going up against a guy like that. He’s going to be battling for a Cy Young every year he pitches. So there’s a lot of positives we can take from today into tomorrow.”

In a year when no position player in the AL seems to be running away from the pack, Verlander may actually have a chance to become the first pitcher to win the award since Oakland closer Dennis Eckersley in 1992.

Verlander threw his second career no-hitter in May and has taken two more into the eighth inning. He is 11-1 against division opponents and is the biggest reason the Tigers started the day with a 6½-game lead over Cleveland.

No-hitter No. 3 seemed to be a distinct possibility when he took the mound against a Twins offense that had scored one run or fewer in six straight games. With Mauer (neck) and Cuddyer (wrist) on the bench, the injury plagued Twins sent out a lineup with eight of their nine players hitting .255 or worse.

But Ben Revere started the game with an infield single and it was apparent early that Verlander didn’t have his best stuff. He needed 28 pitches to get through the first inning and gave up back-to-back homers to Hughes and Repko to start the fifth.

“There’s been times I’ve picked these guys up and there’s been times they’ve picked me up,” Verlander said. “To get to 20 at this point in the season, obviously you can’t do it all on your own. These guys have helped me along the way and today was a good example of that.”

The bottom of the Twins order — Hughes (.240), Repko (.248) and Drew Butera (.170) — went 5 for 8 with two homers, a double and four RBIs against Verlander.

“We were battling pretty hard there,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Again, like last time, we made him throw a lot of pitches early in the game. We got his pitch count up. That just tells you a little bit about him. He’s a warrior.”

Hughes added a two-run double that tied the game 4-all in the sixth and Verlander’s pitch count finished at 120.

But former Twin Delmon Young’s RBI single in the seventh gave the Tigers the lead for good and put Verlander in position for the win.

The six innings pitched tied a season low for Verlander, a 20-game winner for the first time — and the first time by a Tigers pitcher since Bill Gullickson in 1991.

Carl Pavano (6-11) gave up six runs — five earned — on nine hits with four strikeouts and a walk in 6 2-3 innings.

Alex Avila and Miguel Cabrera hit solo homers for the Tigers in the second inning and Cabrera added an RBI single in the seventh for a 6-4 lead.

The Twins lost their seventh straight game and ninth in the last 10. They have lost 15 of their last 17 home games.

“Guys were playing. The guys were intense in the dugout and were getting after it pretty good,” Gardenhire said. “Unfortunately, another loss. Nothing really good comes out of losses.”

NOTES: Gardenhire said CF Denard Span (head), returned home to Tampa, Fla., to rest and planned to return to the Twin Cities to start working out when the Twins hit the road next week. It’s still unclear if Span will play again this season. … Mauer and Cuddyer will be evaluated on Sunday with a DL stint likely for one, if not both, of them if significant improvement isn’t shown, Gardenhire said. … Official scorer Stew Thornley announced a scoring change from Friday night’s ballgame. He changed an infield single from Delmon Young to a fielder’s choice and error on 2B Matt Tolbert, meaning LHP Scott Diamond now had four earned runs charged to him from the start rather than five. … LHP Brian Duensing (8-13, 5.12) takes the mound for the Twins on Sunday in the series finale against RHP Brad Penny (9-9, 4.82). Duensing has had a horrendous August, going 0-5 with an 8.65 ERA. He lasted just two innings in his previous start, an 8-1 loss to the Orioles. … Penny has been improving lately, going 2-0 with a 4.04 ERA in his last three starts.

Third baseman Danny Valencia supplied the only support with a third-inning solo home run — not nearly enough to help Duensing (8-13) avoid an 0-5 record in five August starts. Duensing’s allowed 25 earned runs in 26 innings this month for a 8.65 ERA.

“I’m just kind of wrong right now,” Duensing said. “I don’t feel like I have in the last couple of years.”

Minnesota fell to 1-5 on its homestand and has now lost 17 of its last 22 overall — falling from 6 games back of the American League Central Division leading Detroit Tigers to 15 behind and out of playoff contention in the process.

Alfredo Simon (4-6) allowed one run and three hits while striking out a career-high eight batters in a career-high eight innings for Baltimore. Vladimir Guerrero and Mark Reynolds both had three hits and Nolan Reimold added a three-run homer for the Orioles.

Duensing escaped the first inning unscathed, but things unraveled quickly after he stopped Vladimir Guerrero’s bouncer with the fingertips of his pitching hand to lead off the second. Duensing recovered the ball in time to retire Guerrero, but threw wildly to first for an error.

“I couldn’t feel the ball in my hand,” Duensing said. “I still should’ve made the play, but I really couldn’t feel it. I guess that’s why we have gloves.”

After a wild pitch advanced Guerrero to third, Matt Wieters doubled him home and Mark Reynolds singled to put runners on the corners. Nolan Reimold cleared the bases with a three-run homer two batters later. Duensing allowed two more hits in the frame before pitching out of trouble, but found it again in the third inning.

Guerrero doubled, Wieters walked and Reynolds tripled both in to lead off the inning, followed by a Robert Andino RBI single to chase Duensing.

“He didn’t locate the ball after that,” manager Ron Gardenhire said about Duensing’s barehanded stop. “It looked like he was trying to force pitches and he was up in the zone and they killed him.

“He said (his hand) was fine to go. Obviously he didn’t get the ball where he wanted to and he paid for it.”

Simon, meanwhile, was masterful against a punchless Twins offense following a recent rough stretch.

The right-hander allowed three runs or less in his first five starts, compiling a 3.26 ERA. However, he had allowed 13 runs in 15 2-3 innings in his last three turns.

Simon retired 16 of the final 17 batters he faced and didn’t give up a hit after Luke Hughes’ double in the third inning.

“You see that tonight and you know the potential is there, but everyone’s trying to grasp that consistency,” Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. “It will all be dictated by the command of the fastball, once you establish that. He had a live fastball, a lot of late life.”

After going 63 games without holding an opponent to one run or less, Baltimore’s pitching has held Minnesota to two runs in the series with Simon’s domination following Zach Britton’s 4-1 win in the series opener on Monday.

Notes: Duensing’s second-inning error was the 90th of the season for Minnesota — the third most in the American League. Minnesota committed only 78 errors last season, ranking second in the American League with a .987 fielding percentage. … With Duensing’s loss, Twins starters fell to 2-10 in the team’s last 18 games, with Francisco Liriano accounting for both wins. Minnesota’s 15-game deficit in the standings is its largest since trailing by 15 1/2 games on June 2. The Twins fell to 18 games under .500, their most since the same mark on June 3. … RHP Lester Oliveros made his debut for the Twins, relieving Duensing. Oliveros, acquired from Detroit in the trade that sent OF Delmon Young to the Tigers, pitched two innings and gave up one run and two hits. … Guthrie (5-16) will start Wednesday against the Twins. The right-hander has lost two straight decisions, and has allowed at least four runs in his last three starts. He is 2-8 with a 4.17 ERA in 11 road starts this season. … Kevin Slowey (0-1) is scheduled to start for Minnesota. Slowey has made one full start since being recalled on Aug. 12, taking an 8-1 loss against New York when he allowed six runs in 5 2-3 innings. He started the Aug. 14 game at Cleveland but it was postponed by rain after two innings.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—The mighty Boston Red Sox lineup rarely gets held in
check.

That one of those days came against struggling Minnesota Twins pitcher Nick
Blackburn(notes) was an even bigger surprise.

Blackburn allowed just one unearned run in 6 2-3 innings and Jim Thome(notes) hit a
tiebreaking RBI double during Minnesota’s three-run eighth inning, leading the
Twins to a 5-2 victory over the Red Sox on Wednesday night.

Blackburn struck out four and scattered six hits, only one of them for
extra-bases, against the highest-scoring team in the league. The right-hander
allowed 16 earned runs in his previous three starts.

David Ortiz(notes) hit a tying homer off Glen Perkins(notes) (4-2) in the eighth inning,
but that was all the Red Sox could muster.

“We just didn’t do much offensively,” manager Terry Francona said. “David
with a big swing to get us tied, to give us a chance. But Blackburn’s off-speed
was down all night. We rolled over a lot of them. Some of them were in and out
of the zone. He did a good job of just pitching.”

Thome hit the 119th pitch from Jon Lester(notes) (11-6) over Carl Crawford’s(notes) head
in left field for a 3-2 lead.

Danny Valencia(notes) added an RBI double and Tsuyoshi Nishioka(notes) came through with a
run-scoring single off Alfredo Aceves(notes) to give Nathan a little breathing room
heading into the ninth. He picked up his ninth save of the season and 255th with
the Twins, setting the franchise record.

Ortiz went 2 for 4 with a homer and Lester gave up four runs and eight hits
in 7 1-3 innings for the Red Sox. The left-hander also issued five walks, tying
a season high.

“I felt like I had pretty good stuff, but I just wasn’t able to locate,”
Lester said. “I gave them too many opportunities. When you do that, that’s what
happens.”

The Red Sox were losing 2-1 when Ortiz stepped into the box in the eighth
against lefty Perkins, who has been dominant this season but has struggled a bit
in the last week.

It was power against power, and Perkins gave him straight gas the entire
showdown. He hit 96 mph on six pitches before cranking up and reaching 98 on his
final offering to Ortiz, who sent the pitch 419 feet into the bullpen behind
center field. It was the first homer against Perkins this season in 178 plate
appearances.

Success against his former team is nothing new for Ortiz, who was allowed to
leave the organization after the 2002 season. He is hitting .333 (54 for 162)
with 12 homers against the Twins, and is 9 for 19 (.474) at Target Field. His
fingerprints have been all over this series, with go-ahead singles late in the
first two games.

But Nathan came on in the ninth and got Mike Aviles(notes), Jacoby Ellsbury(notes) and
Marco Scutaro(notes) to end it and help the Twins avoid a three-game sweep.

“I knew even with a three-run lead these guys can put up runs in a
heartbeat,” Nathan said. “I tried not to give them any breathing room.”

Few could say they saw this outing coming from Blackburn. In his previous
eight starts, he was 3-5 with an 8.15 ERA and 65 hits allowed in 38 2-3 innings.

All he did was handcuff one of the deepest, most formidable lineups in the
game for almost seven innings. With a biting sinker and a befuddling changeup,
Blackburn held Boston scoreless through six as the Twins took a 2-0 lead.

“He was controlling both sides of the plate, so you couldn’t really give
him one side or the other,” catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia(notes) said. “He was able
to just throw strikes. His ball was moving. He was able to get some early swings
when he needed them.”

The Red Sox finally got on the board in the seventh, but only after Twins
second baseman Trevor Plouffe(notes) muffed a grounder from Ellsbury that would have
ended the inning. Scutaro followed with an RBI single to chase Blackburn, and
Perkins got Adrian Gonzalez(notes) to pop out to end the inning.

Perkins (4-2) gave up one run and two hits in 1 1-3 innings for the win.

Mike Aviles had two hits for the Red Sox, and Delmon Young(notes) went 2 for 2 with
two walks for the Twins.

“You just focus on this series,” said Gonzalez, who went 0 for 4. “We won
this series and now we focus on winning a series in Seattle now.”

NOTES: Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia(notes) was given the day off. “He was fighting me
on it the last two days,” Francona said. “Last night after the game, he’s
like, `I’m tired.’ This will be really good for him.” … Francona disputed a
call in the sixth when umpire Ted Barrett gave the speedy Ben Revere(notes) home on a
double by Joe Mauer(notes) that was caught by a fan. “The explanation was good,”
Francona said. “I don’t know. The guys come out of the clubhouse with a
different version, but I can’t see it.” … The Twins are off Thursday and will
begin a three-game series against the Indians in Cleveland on Friday. Carl
Pavano(notes) (6-9, 4.71) will take the mound for the Twins against Justin Masterson(notes)
(9-7, 2.71). Thome will continue his pursuit of career homer No. 600 in the
place where his career began. He is two away from becoming the eighth player to
reach the mark. … The Red Sox are off Thursday as well and will head to
Seattle for a three-game set against the Mariners starting on Friday. John
Lackey(notes) (10-8, 6.14 ERA) will start Game 1 for Boston against Blake Beavan(notes) (3-2,
2.83 ERA). Lackey has been improving lately after a dreadful start. He allowed
three runs in six innings in his previous start against the New York Yankees.