Erickson doesn't go with flow; Twins' stopper stems tide, halts skid again

Erickson gave up one earned run in 7 2/3 innings Wednesday night to lead the Twins to a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays before 26,479 at the Metrodome. More important, he ended the Twins' five-game losing streak with the kind of tough-minded start that has typified his season.

"Erickson was splendid," Twins manager Tom Kelly said, using that adjective for the first time in memory. "He did a great job. We needed a good game pitched for us, and he picked up our spirits. I can't say enough about that kind of an effort."

The Twins' pitching woes made Erickson's outing seem more like a reprieve than a resuscitation. Even this victory wasn't easy, despite a 5-2 lead after eight innings. "It was a lot more exciting than I had hoped for," reliever Rick Aguilera said.

Aguilera and the Twins' defense turned the ninth into an adventure. The Twins' bullpen had gone 0-5 with an 8.27 ERA over the previous 16 games. Aguilera yielded a one-out single to Dick Schofield, then a double to Pat Borders, before striking out Devon White.

Then the ever-dangerous Roberto Alomar hit a hard grounder toward right field. Twins second baseman Chuck Knoblauch made a diving stop. Alomar did not appear to run hard on the play, and Knoblauch bounced to his feet and threw to first. Kent Hrbek had just reached the bag and was unable to reverse his field in time to get to Knoblauch's throw. "We've done that before, and I've caught the ball," Hrbek said. "I just didn't catch this one."

It was a two-base, two-run error, Knoblauch's second in four games, following his 75-game errorless streak. It did Aguilera the disservice of bringing to the plate St. Paul native and future Hall of Famer Paul Molitor with the tying run at second.

Suddenly a placid night at the ballpark acquired overtones of doom. If the bullpen blew this game to extend the losing streak to six and leave the Twins 10 games behind first-place Cleveland, the players might have voted to strike today. Aguilera saved the day, and the game, striking out Molitor to convert his 18th save in 21 opportunities, an astounding rate considering his frequent struggles. "I feel like I've had some mental lapses this year that have really hurt me," he said. "But at least tonight, in the end, we won."

Erickson's no-hitter on April 27 ended the Twins' horrid start and spurred them to two months of glorious baseball. Last night, he ended a drought, but refused to name himself a stopper, as Roger Clemens so often does in Boston. "He can say whatever he wants," Erickson said. "I'm not going to tell everybody I'm a streak stopper."

 He doesn't have to. Everyone knew how important this game was to the Twins' fading hopes. They are nine out and in fourth place with a strike looming. "This stretch has been really frustrating," Erickson said. "If we could have just played .500, we'd be a lot better off . . . We had to win tonight just to get back to .500."

A day after falling below .500 for the first time since May 15, the Twins rebounded to 41-41 and avoided losing the first six games of a month for the first time since May 1983. "We're not scaring anybody, but we're not out of it," Erickson said. "We've got to climb the ladder. With the strike coming, who knows how long we have? It's impossible to make up nine games in a month, the way Cleveland is playing. That's not very realistic."