Crawford's inside-the-park homer lifts Devil Rays over Twins

Devil Rays 4, Twins 2

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Johan Santana finally lost at the Metrodome, an amazing streak nearly two years old that ultimately ended against Tampa Bay.

Don't be that surprised, though, because these Devil Rays can hit.

Carl Crawford's inside-the-park home run and Scott Kazmir's eight sharp innings helped Tampa Bay beat Santana and the Minnesota Twins 4-2 on Friday night.

Despite striking out 10 in seven innings, including five of the last six batters he faced, Santana (2-1) lost at home for the first time since Aug. 1, 2005.

He was 17-0 during that stretch, and the Twins won all 24 games their two-time Cy Young Award winner pitched -- one short of the major league record set in 1890-91 by Louisville with Scott Stratton, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

"If it's over, it's over," Santana said. "Then we'll start another one. It's that simple."

He gave up six hits, four runs and one walk, which came in a three-run fifth by the Devil Rays -- who erased a 10-game losing streak at Minnesota. This was their first victory here since June 3, 2004, when Santana was also the victim.

Kazmir (1-1) doesn't quite have the resume Santana has, but he's a young All-Star left-hander himself with plenty of promise. Still, he appeared in awe of his accomplishment.

"I'm up for the challenge," he said, smiling and shaking his head. "I always am. Just being alongside Santana is nice company."

Luis Rodriguez's RBI single in the second inning and Justin Morneau's upper-deck homer in the sixth were the only runs given up by Kazmir, who surrendered six hits without a walk and struck out six. He won for the first time in four career starts against the Twins.

"I don't look at our offense in a bad way against that kid," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Al Reyes worked the ninth for his third save in as many attempts, allowing a one-out double to Morneau but nothing else.

Tampa Bay, which leads the majors with 16 homers, also matched a team record by hitting a home run in 10 straight games -- first done from Sept. 18-28, 2000.

Crawford's big hit came at the start of the sixth, meaning it was all right to keep his head down. Left fielder Josh Rabe played the slicing line drive awkwardly, failing to run fast enough to make a backhanded catch. The ball bounced in front of him, rolled to the wall and stopped, allowing Crawford -- one of the quickest players in the majors -- to run around the bases and score standing up.

"When I saw the ball get past him, I knew I was going to at least try for it," he said. "They made fun of me running through the sign, and I was going to run through the sign again."

In Thursday night's game, Crawford was embarrassed while trying to get a triple that caused a ninth-inning double play in a 3-2 win by the Twins. He didn't look up to see that Ben Zobrist was already on third base, and then he retreated to second and got tagged out there.

Manager Joe Maddon was happy with the way his young outfielder bounced back from that.

"That speaks to the resiliency of our boys right now," he said.

Santana's struggle was in the fifth, when Delmon Young singled to stretch his hitting streak to 10 games and Akinori Iwamura walked.

Josh Paul singled in Young, and then B.J. Upton's high chop drove in Iwamura. Santana charged off the mound and gloved the ball, but he leaped like a basketball player and unsuccessfully tried to swat it toward the plate as Iwamura scored easily.

Rocco Baldelli hit a smash to third baseman Nick Punto that went for a fielder's choice and drove in another run, making it 3-1.

"It happens sometimes. You're going to have a bad inning," Santana said, later adding: "You've just got to focus on your next start and give your team a chance to win the next game."

Game notes
Referencing Crawford's mistakes from the day before, Maddon joked that he wasn't worried about any negatively superstitious effects on his team on Friday the 13th. "We've had many of those," he said. ... Morneau was given his 2006 AL Most Valuable Player award in a brief ceremony conducted before the game that included Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew, one of four Twins who have been an MVP. ... The 28-year-old rookie Iwamura, who was playing previously in his native Japan, failed to get a hit for the first time in his 10-game career. He walked twice, though. ... For Minnesota, Luis Castillo (0-for-15) and Jason Bartlett (0-for-14) ended hitless streaks.