With Morneau hitting, Twins can contend

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The Minnesota Twins continue to surprise, having won four of their first five games on this road trip to Detroit and Kansas City. The players, including first baseman Justin Morneau, say the team will prove they are better than the media rank them."We're not too worried about what we don't have," Morneau said. "We've been battling every day and busting our tails. We've had a couple of bad games, but for the most part, we've given ourselves a chance in most of the games. You can never count us out because we're always going to play nine innings."Morneau said he believes the Twins have the talent to win the AL Central Division after seeing the competition."I'm hoping so," he said. "We have the talent in here, we have players. (Alexi) Casilla's made a difference. He's been up the last few days playing, and you get those two fast guys (Carlos Gomez and Casilla) at the top of the order, they can make a difference. That puts a lot of pressure on the other team."Casilla, who was hitting .219 for Class AAA Rochester when he was called up May 11, is hitting .282 after going 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly Wednesday against the Royals. He has two home runs and 12 RBI in only 39 at-bats.Morneau has raised his batting average to .310 and has a team-high 40 RBI after he hit a game-winning solo homer in the 10th inning of the Twins' 9-8 victory in Kansas City on Wednesday."My swing has been feeling better than at the start of the year, that's for sure," he said. "But it's one of those things where it only matters if we win games, and if I'm hot and swinging the bat well and that's helping us win games, that's what's important to me."When Morneau won the AL MVP in 2006, he was off to a much slower start than this season, yet finished at .321 with 34 homers and 130 RBI. He could be heading for an even better year. He is one of the most feared hitters in the league right now.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)