Diamond gives bullpen much-needed break

The Twins were determined to give relievers Glen Perkins, Jared Burton and Brian Duensing a break Monday no matter what, but it made things easier when Scott Diamond pitched into the seventh inning of their 5-4 victory over Oakland.

Diamond gave up a first-inning home run to Josh Reddick and a second-inning homer to Kila Ka'aihue, but he wound up holding the A's to three runs over 61/3 innings, giving him four quality starts in five tries.

"He just did a super job for us, pitching deep into the game," Gardenhire said. "Our bullpen was really thin. We weren't going to use any lefties, so we went and did the best we could with [Jeff] Gray and [Alex Burnett] and [Matt Capps]."

Doumit delivers Oakland reliever Ryan Cook entered Monday with a 0.00 ERA, and Ryan Doumit said he didn't try to complicate things before scoring Josh Willingham with the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth inning.

"I just tried to get a ball to the outfield," Doumit said. "I knew I had to get it pretty deep because Willingham isn't the fleetest foot guy in the world. But I got it deep enough, and this is a good win."

So long to Marquis Jason Marquis cleared release waivers and became a free agent. Any team that signs him will owe him just a pro-rated portion of the $480,000 major league minimum salary, with the Twins paying the rest of his $3 million salary.

Marquis went 2-4 with an 8.47 ERA in seven starts for the Twins. Asked if they would have interest in re-signing the 13-year veteran to pitch for Class AAA Rochester, General Manager Terry Ryan said, "I think we're going to move on. I suspect that's probably a mutual feeling. He doesn't need to be pitching at Triple-A. He's beyond that."

Valencia update The Twins don't plan to keep Danny Valencia at Class AAA Rochester forever. They have been waiting for him to heat up at the plate after batting .190 with one home run and 11 RBI in 27 games before his demotion.

Valencia recently batted .341 on an 11-game hitting streak and is batting .267 with two homers and 10 RBI in 15 games for the Red Wings. He went 1-for-4 Monday night.

"He's putting some nice swings on the ball," Gardenhire said. "He hurt his wrist a little bit, but then he got back at it, so he's been doing fine. Looks like he's seeing the ball a little bit better. The reports say he chased a few pitches with runners out there, trying to be a little too aggressive, so it's a work in progress."

Manny won't be here The A's announced that veteran slugger Manny Ramirez will not join the team Wednesday when his 50-game suspension ends.

There was no indication of when he might be called up, but the release said Ramirez will join Class AAA Sacramento's 25-man roster Wednesday.

He has been on a 10-day minor league assignment as his suspension for violating baseball's drug policy for a second time ends.

He has hit .250 with no homers and four RBI in nine games.