CLEVELAND(AP) -- Michael Brantley and David Huff gave the
Cleveland Indians hope for the future by damaging the Minnesota
Twins' present plans.

Brantley hit a tiebreaking single with two outs in the seventh
inning, helping Huff and the Indians beat Minnesota 3-1 Sunday.
The loss dropped the Twins seven games behind Detroit in the AL
Central.

"Every team goes through stretches like this," said Twins first
baseman Michael Cuddyer, who is in an 0-for-16 slump.
"Unfortunately for us, it's coming at a bad time."

Brantley's grounder into right field scored Luis Valbuena from
second and gave the Indians a 2-1 lead. Brantley was caught in a
rundown when Cuddyer cut off the throw home, but made it to
second safely and scored on Asdrubal Cabrera's double.

With Brantley reversing his tracks back and forth between
throws, Cuddyer finally chased him to second and made a lunging
tag - but dropped the ball as both players tumbled.

"Too bad it isn't like the NFL where the ground can't cause a
fumble," Cuddyer said.

Cleveland took two of three from the Twins, hurting their
chances of tracking down Detroit. The Twins began the day six
back of the Tigers despite winning 12 of their previous 17.

"Right now, it's not working," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire
said. "For a while we said if our pitching ever catches up with
our bats, we'll be OK. Now we're struggling with our bats, and
our pitching is going along pretty decent. They need to go
together."

Huff (9-7) outpitched Nick Blackburn (9-10), allowing one run
and two hits in seven innings to earn his fourth win in his last
five starts. The rookie left-hander had not pitched since Aug.
26 as the Indians seek to limit his workload.

"I felt strong and had good command," Huff said. "I'm in
uncharted territory. A year ago, my season finished Sept. 1. I'm
not physically tired. Mentally, I'm trying to get through it."

Brantley and Huff are two of several youngsters getting a chance
with the rebuilding Indians, who have traded away many veterans
and are without injured All-Star outfielder Grady Sizemore for
the rest of the season.

"Brantley put some good swings on the ball against us,"
Gardenhire said. "He's a nice-looking player. Cabrera's becoming
one of the better players in the league. I really like watching
him out there. They've got some nice-looking players."

Indians manager Eric Wedge likes what he has seen, too.

"He impacted the game," Wedge said of Brantley, acquired by
Cleveland in July 2008 in the trade that sent CC Sabathia to
Milwaukee. "He did a great job of staying in that rundown. He
knocked one in, scored another and was the separator."

Brantley said he tried to stick with fundamentals with the game
tied in the seventh.

"I looked for a pitch and was able to put a good swing on it,"
said the 22-year-old outfielder. "I wanted to get in the rundown
so that the run would score there. Once it did, I tried to get
out of it. It's a lot of fun to do, but I was lucky this time."

Huff held the Twins hitless until Nick Punto poked a double down
the first-base line with two outs in the fifth. Denard Span hit
the next pitch for an RBI single and 1-0 lead.

The Indians tied it in the bottom half on a pair of broken-bat
hits. Brantley shattered his lumber on a leadoff single to
center, advanced on Cabrera's sacrifice and scored on Jhonny
Peralta's two-out single.

Tony Sipp pitched the eighth and Kerry Wood worked a perfect
ninth, striking out two, for his 19th save in 24 chances.

Huff had lost his last three starts at Progressive Field while
posting a 10.38 ERA. That included a 10-1 loss to the Twins on
Aug. 4, when the rookie left-hander gave up seven runs and 11
hits in 4 2-3 innings.

Twins catcher Joe Mauer went 1 for 4, dropping his AL-leading
average to .366. He was robbed of a hit in the fourth when
second baseman Valbuena made a diving backhand catch of his line
drive up the middle.

NOTES: Brantley has hit safely in all six games since being
called up Tuesday, going 9 for 23 (.391). ... Twins LHP
Francisco Liriano (arm fatigue) threw in the bullpen. He is
scheduled to pitch a simulated game Tuesday in Toronto and may
be activated Thursday. ... The Twins will promote RHP Armando
Gabino and OF Justin Huber from Triple-A Rochester after its
season ends Monday. ... Twins slugger Justin Morneau went 0 for
3 with a walk and is hitless in his last 19 at-bats.