"Carl Pavano is in a groove on the mound. It's his timing that stinks. In each of his past two starts, the veteran right-hander has pitched eight innings and has a combined earned-run average of 2.81, yet he and the Twins are 0-2 in those games, their only two shutout losses of the season. Ty Wigginton's two-run homer in the second was all Baltimore needed Thursday night as the Orioles snapped a three-game skid with a 2-0 victory at Target Field. "It was a slider that I hung and he put a hurtin' on it. But, that's the game of baseball. What are you gonna do?" said Pavano, who gave up six hits, the other five singles. After Wigginton's homer he allowed only one runner to reach second and retired 18 of the last 25 hitters he faced. "We're playing good baseball, and we still played good tonight," he said. "We lost by two runs, on a pitch I gave up a two-run homer on. But sometimes you have to tip your hat to the other pitcher." The other pitcher was second-year righty Brian Bergesen, who came into the game with a 1-2 record and 10.57 ERA. But, pitching in a constant drizzle, he kept the Twins off balance with an effective sinker. Bergesen scattered six hits and walked two over 6 2/3 innings. Twice the Twins used walks to load the bases with two outs, but as they've done so often this season, they came up empty. Michael Cuddyer flied to deep center in the third, and Jim Thome struck out swinging in the seventh as the Twins left the tying run on second. They're now 4 for 47 (.150) in bases-loaded situations. "I'll take our chances with the keep-loading-the-bases. Eventually we'll get our hits with it," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We've been doing pretty good; I think we're, what, 19-10 and now? I think we're doing a few things right. "Maybe we're missing our chances with the bases loaded, but we'll get better at that and win 50 in a row. I don't know. I like our baseball team; we just got shut out tonight." " http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_15035246
