MINNEAPOLIS – Torii Hunter walked with the bases loaded in the ninth inning, forcing in the winning run and lifting the Minnesota Twins over the struggling Chicago White Sox 7-6 Wednesday for a three-game sweep.

The Twins handed the White Sox their fourth straight loss and moved past Chicago into third place in the AL Central after rallying from a 6-1 deficit after 21/2 innings against Jon Garland.

Facing Mike MacDougal (1-2) in the ninth, Jason Tyner drew a one-out walk and moved to second when Nick Punto hit a chopper to Paul Konerko for a possible double play. Konerko’s throw appeared to graze Tyner before hitting shortstop Alex Cintron in the right knee for an error on the first baseman.

Cintron fielded Michael Cuddyer’s grounder deep in the hole, but his throw to second was not in time to force Punto. Boone Logan came in, and Justin Morneau popped out behind the plate on the first pitch.

David Aardsma was summoned from the bullpen to face Hunter, who walked on four pitches to end the game.

Garland gave up an RBI groundout to Jeff Cirillo and an run-scoring single to Chris Heintz that tied the game at 6 in the sixth.

Heintz’s hit took Scott Baker off the hook. After a stellar debut for Minnesota 11 days earlier when he replaced Sidney Ponson, Baker has regressed – statistically, at least – in his last two starts.

Nearly every ball Chicago hit was hard, starting with Jermaine Dye’s RBI single in the first. Joe Crede’s RBI double and Tadahito Iguchi’s two-out, two-run single piled on in the second. Then Rob Mackowiak’s two-out, two-run homer in the third gave the Sox a 6-1 advantage.

He finished the third, but gave up six runs and 10 hits. Jason Miller and Matt Guerrier held Chicago without a run from the fourth through the seventh.

Pat Neshek pitched a scoreless eighth, marked by some excellent defense. Hunter tracked down Mackowiak’s long fly ball in center field, Punto – subbing for Luis Castillo at second base – gloved a grounder up the middle and spun around to throw out Crede. And Neshek finished the inning with a diving stop of Cintron’s bouncer that he turned into a 1-3 groundout.

Joe Nathan (2-1) entered in the ninth and pitched a 1-2-3 inning, high-fiving Jason Kubel for his jumping catch against the left-field wall to take a homer away from Iguchi.

Chicago gave up 47 hits over the past three games. While Garland kept those to a minimum, allowing five in six innings, the right-hander had trouble with his control. He walked five and struck out only two.

He took that 6-1 lead into the bottom of the third and walked the leadoff batter, Jason Bartlett. Punto and Cuddyer walked, too, loading the bases with one out and bringing a frustrated pitching coach, Don Cooper, out of the dugout.

The AL MVP, Morneau, was up next, and he hit a sacrifice fly. Torii Hunter followed with a two-run double to cut the lead to two.

Cirillo’s two-out RBI single in the second gave the Twins their first run. Eighteen of their 26 runs in this three-game series came with two outs.

Notes: This was the last game as Minnesota’s official scorer for Tom Mee, the first employee hired by the organization when the franchise moved from Washington before the 1961 season. Mee worked in public relations and became official scorer in 1991. … A.J. Pierzynski didn’t start for the White Sox, but he entered in the ninth as a pinch-hitter to a predictable cacophony of boos from the paid crowd of 29,042. He stayed in the game behind the plate to replace Toby Hall.

AP-ES-05-30-07 1616EDT