MINNEAPOLIS -- The Indians have spent the last week restructuring the part of their club that has perhaps been its biggest disappointment in a rough 2008 campaign -- the bullpen.

On Saturday night, the Twins saw exactly why it's been the club's trouble area.

A five-run sixth inning off the Indians' bullpen helped propel Minnesota to a 9-6 victory over Cleveland at the Metrodome.

It gave the Twins their 17th win in their last 20 games and kept the club just a game behind the White Sox for the American League Central division lead.

But like many of the other victories in this recent stretch, the Twins were forced to come up with the big inning after finding themselves with yet another deficit. This time it was early in the contest.

Right-hander Kevin Slowey, having thrown 16 straight scoreless innings, entered his start against the Indians as one of the Twins' hottest starters. And he extended it to 17 after holding Grady Sizemore on third base following a leadoff triple in the first.

The scoreless streak would stop there. In the second, Slowey was tagged for five runs by the Indians. He issued two walks and allowed three hits in the inning, including a three-run home by Sizemore that was the 100th homer of the center fielder's career.

It negated what had been a 2-0 Twins lead after Craig Monroe nearly hit one out of the ballpark in the first off Indians starter Aaron Laffey. The Twins designated hitter tattooed a ball to right-center field that hit just a foot shy of the top of the baggie. Monroe's hit resulted in a two-run double as both Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau scored on the play.

Despite the lead change, there was no panic inside the Twins' dugout.

"I think right now we feel like we can win every game," Morneau said. "You get down and you don't feel like you are out of any game. We're scoring some runs right now and it's a good feeling. You give up five runs in an inning, and a lot of times that will deflate a team, but it's not happening right now."

Instead, the Twins started to chip away at Laffey just as Slowey was fixing the problem that plagued him in the second.

In the midst of Slowey's rough inning, pitching coach Rick Anderson and catcher Mauer noticed a mechanical flaw in Slowey's delivery. Anderson said that Slowey had been dropping his arm to the side rather than getting on top of the ball, flattening the ball's flight and negating any movement.

Slowey (6-6) looked at video following the inning and made an adjustment that clearly worked. Following Sizemore's homer, Slowey retired 14 of the next 15 hitters he faced. That included a stretch of 13 straight outs before Slowey gave up a two-out single to Casey Blake in the sixth.

"I think right now we feel like we can win every game. ... We're scoring some runs right now and it's a good feeling. You give up five runs in an inning, and a lot of times that will deflate a team, but it's not happening right now."
-- Justin Morneau

"For me to be accurate, to throw strikes and throw strikes down in the zone, I need to be a little bit slower out there than I was in the second," Slowey said. "I felt like I was kind of jumping to home plate, and my arm just never caught up to my body. And that's something Joe and Andy noticed. You try to correct it the best you can. So being able to go out there and continue to pitch and just letting our offense work was great."

When Slowey exited after the sixth -- having allowed just the five runs -- the Twins trailed by just one, 5-4. Denard Span added an RBI single in the fourth off Laffey and Mauer added his fourth home run of the season in the fifth on a leadoff solo shot to deep center.

"We were just one run away, and with this team that means the fast guys lay down those bunts and wreak havoc," Morneau said.

That's exactly what happened in the sixth when the Twins combined for five runs off right-hander Tom Mastny and left-hander Rafael Perez by using a mix of walks, hits and a little speed.

A one-out walk by Span got the first of the Twins' trio of speedsters on base. Carlos Gomez followed with a bunt to Mastny to put runners on first and second. Alexi Casilla, who was back in the lineup after missing Friday's game with a sore left middle finger, then came up with perhaps the biggest hit of the night.

Casilla belted a ball to deep right-center field that carried over right fielder Shin-Soo Choo's head and bounced off the middle of the baggie. It turned into a foot race on the basepaths, with Gomez nearly catching up to Span just past second base.

"I lost the ball in the lights and just wanted to make sure the ball dropped before I took off," Span said. "I looked at the right fielder's back turned, and I heard Carlos on top of me saying, 'Go, Go, Go.' And as soon as I heard that, I knew I had to get on my horses. I knew he was going to try to show his speed off, so I had to try to show mine off, too."

Both Span and Gomez would score on Casilla's double to give the Twins a 6-5 lead. Two straight walks to Mauer and Morneau would follow before a wild pitch by Perez with the bases loaded scored another run. Brendan Harris then finished off the scoring with a two-out single to left field that drove in two more runs and finished off the five-run inning.

Watching his team take advantage of a struggling Indians bullpen was a boost for Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, but perhaps nothing enthused him more than seeing the way his club clawed its way back.

"Speed can do a lot of things for you," Gardenhire said. "It makes up for other parts of the game that you don't have. We've got speed -- guys who can run, guys who can run the ball down and guys who get after the game. Right now, it's fun."