"Justin Morneau went 3-for-4 in the Twins' 11-4 victory today, but what impressed me was that Morneau, in a meaningless game, ran crazy on the bases, twice trying to advance on fly balls and making a hard take-out slide.

I assumed Morneau was following up his public talk about the importance of the Twins playing hard the rest of the season. He downplayed that aspect, but I believe he was trying to set an example for the Twins' younger players, many of whom have not displayed a lot of baseball intelligence or gamesmanship this season.

``No, it was just an opportunity,'' Morneau said. ``On one of them, I probably shouldn't have run.

``Just trying to play the game. It's hard to be aggressive if you're down five or six runs because you run into an out, you look pretty dumb...

``I was just kind of playing the game. It doesn't matter how many games up or down we are, we've got to keep playing the game the way we're supposed to play, and whether it rubs off on anyone else or not, hopefully it's good.''

Morneau noted that the way Target Field plays could give the Twins an advantage if they study the park.

``I'm not exactly fast,'' he said. ``I don't know if the guys will see that and say, `Oh, he was out by a half-step on that ball, maybe that means I can tag on that ball and make it.' Just because this ballpark plays big doesn't mean we can't learn how to take advantage of that.''"