Twins use long ball in come-from-behind win vs. Angels

Twins 8, Angels 5

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Luis Castillo's major league-record errorless streak for second basemen ended at 143 games. More important to him and the Minnesota Twins, their four-game skid also came to a halt.

Nick Punto, Michael Cuddyer and Jason Bartlett homered and Kevin Slowey lasted long enough to get his first major league win as the Twins beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-5 Wednesday.

Castillo, who won three consecutive Gold Gloves with Florida, hadn't committed an error since May 29, 2006 -- also at Angel Stadium -- when he misplayed a line drive by Chone Figgins. But Figgins was involved again in the first-inning error that snapped Castillo's streak after 647 chances without one.

Vladimir Guerrero grounded to Bartlett at shortstop and his sidearm throw to Castillo for the attempted force on Figgins tipped off Castillo's glove.

"When I made the error, the first thing I wanted to do was pick up the ball and throw it away," Castillo said. "The kind of error I made, that's an easy play. That's the easiest play that I can make. You don't see an error made like that. I knew one day the streak would be over, but I feel proud of myself because that's a long time without an error."

The Twins took advantage of a key error by sure-handed Angels shortstop Orlando Cabrera, stopping Los Angeles' five-game winning streak.

Slowey (1-0) allowed five runs and 10 hits over five-plus innings in his second big league start. He left after Howie Kendrick hit a leadoff homer in the sixth that trimmed Minnesota's lead to 6-5.

Joe Nathan, the fifth Twins pitcher, closed for his 13th save in 14 chances.

Angels starter John Lackey (9-4) gave up six runs in seven innings after being staked to a 4-0 lead.

"It was definitely a game I thought I'd win," Lackey said. "Every time I start, I think I'm going to win. I don't care who I'm facing. We hit the ball well and scored enough runs."

The Twins pulled ahead 6-4 with four runs in the sixth after Cabrera misplayed a potential double-play grounder by Jason Kubel. Punto then drove a full-count pitch over the 18-foot wall in right-center for a three-run homer, and Justin Morneau capped the rally with an RBI single.

"The error was more surprising than anything to me because he's played such great defense all year," Lackey said. "He's definitely saved more than he's let in, so it was unfortunate that I wasn't able to pick him up."

Cuddyer had three hits and drove in three runs for the Twins, who lost the first two games of the series 16-3 and 5-1. Bartlett hit his first home run of the season.

"I don't know if it was as much John as it was some things he couldn't control," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "A couple of plays weren't made and we gave them a couple of extra outs in the fifth when they got the four runs. That's tough for any pitcher. They've got a tough lineup over there and they put it together and bunched some hits to get back into the game. John usually pitches well with the lead, but just couldn't get through a couple of innings."

The Angels opened the scoring in the second with Mike Napoli's RBI single and Reggie Willits' run-scoring double. They made it 4-0 in the third with Casey Kotchman's RBI double and another run-scoring single by Napoli.

Lackey retired his first 10 batters, but Jeff Cirillo ended the Twins' drought with a single and Cuddyer followed with his eighth homer.

"It's a great win for our ballclub," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Getting behind Lackey is not the way you want to go about your business too often. He's a pretty tough pitcher. But we kept playing the game, Slowey gave it everything he had and our bullpen came in and did just a super job."

In other Twins news Wednesday, catcher Joe Mauer failed to hit the ball out of the infield in his first three at-bats of a Florida State League rehab assignment Wednesday night.

The defending American League batting champion walked in his fourth and final at-bat. But results weren't the main thing. "Felt pretty good," Mauer said. "My timing didn't feel very good."

Game notes
The major league record for consecutive errorless games by any infielder is 193, set by former Dodgers and Padres 1B Steve Garvey. ... Punto's homer was his first since Aug. 25, 2006, against Javier Vazquez of the White Sox. ... Cabrera won a Gold Glove in 2001 with the Montreal Expos and was leading all major league shortstops with a .988 fielding average coming in. ... Nathan Haynes made his first big league start in RF while Guerrero was the DH.