AL CENTRAL Santana is Twins' weapon

The White Sox have dropped three straight.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Johan Santana kept the Chicago White Sox's short-handed offense off balance and helped the Minnesota Twins increase their AL Central lead.
Santana pitched two-hit ball into the seventh to push the Twins' lead in the division to 21/2 games with a 7-3 win Tuesday night.
"I think coming into this series we knew we were going to have to play some good baseball," Santana said. "You have to make sure you take care of your own division and we came here to just play the game and have some fun and now we're in first place."
On a roll
Minnesota won for the ninth time in 11 games as Santana -- now 7-2 in his last 10 starts -- outpitched Freddy Garcia.
As usual, the Twins had plenty of contributions.
Reliever Juan Rincon bailed Santana out when he ran into trouble in the seventh. Cristian Guzman had three hits, including a pair of doubles. And Corey Koskie was hit by a pitch three times, tying a major league record. He also had a walk.
"It was a weird night for him, he kept getting plunked. I don't know what to call it. I call it black dots. He kept getting on base," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.
"It's not the first time I'm going to get hit and it's not the last time. To have them all in one game is a little different," Koskie said, noting none of the pitches were high. "I've played hockey. I've taken quite a whack."
Santana (9-6) walked two and struck out six, giving him an AL-best 161 strikeouts, in six-plus innings.
While the Twins are on a roll, the White Sox have dropped three straight. Without injured stars Magglio Ordonez and Frank Thomas, Chicago's offense is struggling with just seven runs in the skid.
The White Sox hit three homers -- two by Carlos Lee -- but all were solo shots. And they finished with four hits.
"We have to move on and play better right now. These are the dog days," Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen. "We're only 21/2 out. We've been there before and battled back. This team is kind of streaky."
After Ben Davis singled with one out in the third for the White Sox's first hit, Santana retired 11 straight before Lee led off the seventh with his 18th homer.
After Lee's homer, Santana walked Paul Konerko and hit Carl Everett with a pitch before Rincon relieved and retired three straight, two on strikeouts.