This Time, Twins Keep Angels at Arms’ Distance

The Minnesota Twins can beat and batter an opponent, as they have done with regularity lately.

Or they can stop a team with pitching, as they did Tuesday when left-hander Bill Krueger pitched a two-hitter against the Angels for a 2-0 victory in front of 23,045 at Anaheim Stadium.

It was the third time the Twins have shut out the Angels in the past nine games, and the second time they have held them to two hits.

Singles by Luis Sojo and Gary DiSarcina were the only blemishes on Krueger’s performance. The former Seattle Mariner pitcher, whom the Twins signed to a minor league contract for a pittance in January, has an 8-2 record and 2.60 earned-run average this season. The two hits were a career-low for Krueger, who allowed only one other baserunner, walking pinch-hitter Jose Gonzalez in the eighth inning.

“We can’t score any runs,” Angel interim Manager John Wathan said. “They’ve stymied us.” The Twins are a team capable of using force, but this time they didn’t need it. Kirby Puckett scored the only necessary run in the seventh inning, reaching on a walk and then scoring when Kent Hrbek drove him in with a double to the gap in right-center. He scored a second run in the ninth.

For once, the Twins’ offense was subdued. Angel starter Julio Valera (4-7) allowed only three hits during the first six innings, but was relieved with one out in the ninth after allowing two runs and seven hits.

“You know we’re not going to score a lot of runs,” Wathan said. “You get a fine pitching performance like that, and you’d like to score just a couple and win.”

Valera’s outing can be considered an accomplishment against the Twins, whose .285 team batting average leads the second-best major league club by 15 points. During the last week, they have hit .341, averaging slightly more than seven runs a game in their last six games before Tuesday.

The Angels have been victims on the Twins’ onslaught. In five games this season, the Twins have outscored them, 25-4.

“You can’t think about (lack of run support),” Valera said. “All I can do is do my job. You just have to hope--it can’t be this way the whole year.”

The Twins can dominate a team with their pitching. A team earned-run average that was once as high as 4.12, ranking 12th in the league, has improved to 3.69, ranking second.

The Twins have won 12 of their last 14 games, and during the 13 before Tuesday, the staff ERA was 1.63.

Krueger was essentially Minnesota’s for the asking in January. Krueger had a decent year with the Mariners last season, going 11-8 with a 3.60 ERA, but he balked at the Mariners’ offer of an $800,000 contract with an option year at $1.2 million, and later turned down an offer of arbitration. Turned out he shouldn’t have, as he signed a $500,000 contract with the Twins, that can be worth about $700,000 with incentives.

As well as he pitched, the Twins weren’t in charge until the seventh.

With Puckett on first after a leadoff walk, Hrbek lined a double into the gap in right-center. Center fielder Junior Felix chased it down and retrieved it off the wall, but Puckett was already coming around to score. Second baseman Sojo’s error on Felix’s relay throw allowed Hrbek to reach third with none out.

Valera kept him there. Gene Larkin popped to second, and then DiSarcina made a leaping grab of Brian Harper’s high-bouncing grounder, looking Hrbek back before throwing Harper out at first. The threat was squashed for good with Randy Bush’s grounder to second.

Krueger didn’t allow a hit--or even a baserunner--until there were two out in the fifth, when Sojo lofted a high pitch into shallow right-center, where it fell in for a single.

The only runner to reach second was DiSarcina.