Pavano gets back in the win column

Finally, Minnesota Twins starter Carl Pavano is back in the win column. Prior to Friday's game against the Los Angeles Angels, Pavano hadn't won since before the All-Star break, when he defeated the White Sox on July 7. But following Friday's 13-5 win over the Angels, Pavano has snapped his streak of winless outings at nine to improve to 7-11 on the season. "We haven't played very well behind him recently. He's been actually throwing the ball very good," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of Pavano. "We've played some really sloppy defense behind him, haven't scored a lot of runs for him. It's about time. He deserves it. He's been working really hard. He's been kind of one of the horses out there that's been taking the ball every fifth day." Pavano went 6 23 innings for Minnesota on Friday, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits. He struck out four, and more importantly, he didn't walk a batter. For just the third time in his 28 starts, Pavano was given more than seven runs of support by the Twins offense. Twice, Minnesota scored nine runs with Pavano on the mound. Before he exited in the seventh, the Twins scored eight runs against Angels starter Tyler Chatwood and the L.A. bullpen. With Minnesota holding an 8-3 lead after six and a half innings, Pavano came back out for the bottom of the seventh after throwing 104 pitches through six. He gave up one more run on an RBI triple by Erick Aybar before giving way to reliever Alex Burnett. Burnett retired Howie Kendrick on the first pitch to end the seventh inning. Pavano ran his pitch count to 118 (83 strikes) on Friday, a season-high for the veteran righty. His previous high was 117 on Aug. 22 against Baltimore. Friday's pitch count was Pavano's highest since 2005, when he threw 133 against Seattle while pitching for the New York Yankees. "He was pretty focused, threw some good pitches," Gardenhire said. "Aybar got him a few times tonight, but he did a really good job for us." During his recent winless drought, Pavano pitched well enough to win several games but couldn't find the "W" column. Twice during that nine-start winless stretch, he allowed just one earned run he was hit with a loss in a 6-1 game, and got a no-decision in a 3-2 Twins defeat against Cleveland despite leaving with a 1-0 lead. The Twins spotted Pavano a run right away Friday in the first inning when Trevor Plouffe hit a solo homer off Chatwood. But Pavano gave the run right back in the bottom of the first when Kendrick tripled and later scored on Bobby Abreu's sacrifice fly. After Kendrick singled in Aybar in the bottom of the third for a 2-1 Angels lead, the Twins responded by giving Pavano five runs in the fourth for a 6-2 advantage. From there, Pavano cruised to his seventh victory by allowing just two more runs and just one more earned run before his exit in the bottom of the seventh. "We scored him some runs. It's about time we did some of those things for him," Gardenhire said.