Twins finally get a victory

Twins shortstop Jamey Carroll picked up his phone after Wednesday's game, scrolled through some videos, found one and pressed the play button.

It was of his teary-eyed 4-year-old son, Cole Patrick, being asked questions by his mother, Kim.

"Why are you crying?" Kim asked.

"Because Daddy doesn't have a hiiiiiiiiit," he wailed.

The Carroll household was a happier one on Wednesday night, as Dad collected his first two hits as a Twin, including the game-winner in a 6-5 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

Twins households everywhere were happier when the club became the last one off the island of winless teams. The Twins began the day 0-4 and, consequently, were starting to be asked if this was 2011 and 99 losses all over again.

But they bounced back from 1-0 and 5-3 deficits to win. Matt Capps came on in the ninth to earn the save. The announced crowd, however, was 31,413 -- the smallest in Target Field's brief history.

"You've got to keep playing," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We know we can score runs, but it has to happen on the field. We got some big hits and some clutch hits and good things happened and they will happen to these guys. They get after it pretty good."

Carroll was 0-for-13 with three walks when the day began, but he still had a sense of humor. He played the video of his son crying for teammates before the game.

"They got a good laugh," Carroll said.

Carroll struck out in his first at-bat against Angels righthander Jered Weaver. But he opened the fourth with a double to left, pumping his first as he pulled into second. He then scored on a line single to left-center by Joe Mauer that tied the score at 1-1.

His clutch hit came in the pivotal seventh.

Singles by Ryan Doumit and Danny Valencia put runners on first and second with no one out. Chris Parmelee, facing lefthander Hisanori Takahashi, hit a ball down the right field line. Torii Hunter went after the ball as it bounced down the line, but it took an unexpected bounce. He tried to adjust but fell head and shoulder into the wall.

"I was punch drunk," Hunter said. "Felt like Mike Tyson hit me."

The ball rolled to the corner as both runners scored and Parmelee pulled into third with his first career triple. He was almost stranded there, but Carroll batted with two outs against former Twin LaTroy Hawkins. Carroll looked for something on the outer half of the plate and slapped a single to right, scoring the winning run.

"He's been champing at the bit," Gardenhire said of Carroll. "It was great to see him after his first hit, a huge smile."

He wasn't the only one. Josh Willingham saw a fly ball sail over his glove in left for an inside-the-park home run, but he hit his third homer of the young season and has at least one hit in all five games. Capps, in his quest to put last season's struggles behind him, came through in his first save opportunity. Glen Perkins entered in the eighth and got two strikeouts, including one of Albert Pujols.

"I know these guys want to move on past last year," Carroll said. "You start off 0-4 and it trickles back in as far as getting asked about it and you hear about it. Guys didn't want to have that kind of start, but that was the case. It was good to come off the off day and get a win."