MINNEAPOLIS – Magglio Ordonez homered and drove in all three runs against Johan Santana, lifting the Detroit Tigers to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night and ending Santana’s five-start winning streak.

Santana (11-7) threw a season-high 118 pitches after persuading manager Ron Gardenhire to let him finish the eighth inning, but the Twins again had hitting problems _ leaving 14 men on base. They lost their third straight to the Tigers and trail the AL Central leaders by eight games.

Andrew Miller (5-3) threw five innings for the victory, which was finished by Todd Jones for his 25th save in 29 attempts.

It was tainted a bit for the Tigers when Marcus Thames ended the eighth with a running shoestring catch but limped off with an injury. Twins All-Star Torii Hunter got hurt, too, leaving in the fourth inning with a mild strain of his left hamstring.

Minnesota’s previous two meetings with Detroit resulted in 1-0 defeats, including Tuesday’s wasted gem by Matt Garza _ who threw seven innings with three hits and one unearned run given up.

This game developed the same way. No stranger to a lack of offensive support, Santana sailed through the first three innings with nine up, nine down and 35 pitches.

He needed the same number of throws, though, for the fourth when the Tigers showed one of the reasons why they’re leading the division race for a second straight summer _ dangerous, experienced hitters. With one out and two runners on, Ordonez drove a two-run double to left-center field on the sixth pitch he saw from Santana.

Then in the sixth, Ordonez swung at the first offering and sent it over the fence in center to extend Detroit’s lead to 3-1 and suck some life out of the crowd of 38,070. Santana allowed five hits, those three runs and struck out seven with one walk.

Miller walked four, but he struck out five and pitched well when the Twins threatened to score _ leaving with only four hits and one run against him.

Morneau, the reigning AL MVP, stranded seven runners by himself. He struck out to end the first inning with two on and looked at strike three for the first out of the fourth following a single by Michael Cuddyer. He drove in a run in the fifth when he was hit by Miller’s bases-loaded pitch, but after working the count to 3-0 with two on and none out, Morneau popped out to second base in the seventh. Morneau struck out after Cuddyer’s leadoff single in the ninth.

He wasn’t the only culprit, though. Jason Kubel, who replaced Hunter, struck out looking in the fifth after Morneau got hit. After Luis Castillo’s RBI groundout in the sixth brought Minnesota back within one, Jeff Cirillo popped out to the catcher with the bases loaded in the seventh and Lew Ford followed by flying out to center.

Notes:@ Ordonez has hit Santana well in his career. He’s batting .419 with five homers in 43 at-bats against the two-time AL Cy Young winner. … Hunter’s hamstring had been causing him mild soreness over the past few days, the reason he was excluded from the lineup in Sunday’s game against Oakland.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)