Chicago ? The Minnesota Twins needed this one badly.

Shannon Stewart drove in a pair of runs, and Johan Santana won his fourth straight decision Wednesday night as Minnesota pulled within one game of the AL Central lead with a 4-1 victory over Chicago.

“It was a big one. You don’t want to come in here and lose three in a row to these guys and face” Esteban Loaiza today, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

“For our side, it was like a playoff game,” Gardenhire added. “We knew we wanted to win this ballgame, and there was a lot of intensity in our dugout.”

Santana (10-3) kept Chicago off-balance all night, and the Twins got breaks on two big calls as they snapped a six-game losing streak to the White Sox.

The White Sox did threaten in the seventh, putting runners at second and third with only one out. LaTroy Hawkins relieved, and pinch-hitter Brian Daubach appeared to foul a ball off.

But the ball touched the plate and catcher A.J. Pierzynski grabbed it, tagging Daubach for the second out. White Sox manager Jerry Manuel argued, but the call stood.

“That killed a real big inning for us,” Frank Thomas said. “We needed tonight, but tomorrow’s a big swing game.”

Try huge. The teams have a three-game series in Minneapolis next week, but the Twins have the edge when it comes to the schedule. While Chicago’s other remaining games are against Boston, New York and Kansas City, Minnesota gets Cleveland and Detroit.

Minnesota third baseman Corey Koskie, back, reaches for a bunt by Chicago's Tony Graffanino as Twins pitcher Johan Santana gets out of the way. Graffanino was out at first on the throw from Koskie. The Twins won, 4-1, Wednesday night in Chicago.

“We need to have a little momentum going on the road trip,” Manuel said. “I still feel we’re playing good baseball. Tonight, they got a couple of breaks and we didn’t get a couple of breaks. We had a couple of opportunities, and didn’t take advantage of them.”

The White Sox stranded seven, four in scoring position.

Eddie Guardado worked a perfect ninth for his 34th save in 37 chances.

Red Sox 5, Orioles 0

Baltimore — Pedro Martinez allowed three hits over eight innings and Kevin Millar drove in two runs for Boston. Johnny Damon had three hits and scored twice for the Red Sox, who took two of three from the Orioles to finish a 7-2 road trip. Martinez (12-4) struck out nine and walked two in lowering his league-leading ERA to 2.36. Martinez outpitched Jason Johnson (10-7), who performed well after yielding three first-inning runs. Johnson is 0-2 since in six starts since beating Boston on Aug. 10.

Yankees 15, Tigers 5

New York — Jorge Posada hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high seven runs. Hideki Matsui homered and drove in three runs, and Nick Johnson also homered, but made three of the Yankees’ defensive miscues. New York won its fourth straight. Gary Knotts (3-6) took the loss for Detroit. At 37-107, the Tigers need six wins in their final 18 games to avoid matching the post-1900 record of 120 losses in a season set by the 1962 New York Mets.

Blue Jays 6, D-Rays 5

St. Petersburg, Fla. — Vernon Wells and Carlos Delgado hit back-to-back homers in the seventh inning, and Wells drove in three runs as Toronto beat Tampa Bay.

Mariners 3, Rangers 1

Seattle — Joel Pineiro threw a four-hitter for Seattle in a game delayed 34 minutes by a power outage. Bret Boone hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning, shortly after the lights came back on and drove in all of Seattle’s runs as the Mariners snapped a three-game losing streak and stayed 2 1/2 games behind Oakland in the AL West.

Athletics 3, Angels 0

Oakland, Calif. — Ted Lilly won his career-best fourth straight start and Erubiel Durazo went 3-for-4 with a double for Oakland. Lilly (10-9) retired the first seven Angels hitters and nine of the first 10 batters as the A’s won for the second straight night against Anaheim.