MINNEAPOLIS -Bangor’s Matt Kinney pitched into the seventh inning in his first Major League Baseball appearance in 11/2 years, and Minnesota sent Cleveland to its fifth straight loss, 6-2 Saturday night.

Kinney (1-0) picked up where Kyle Lohse left off Friday, allowing two hits through six innings. He left with one out in the seventh after Milton Bradley’s solo homer.

“I can’t tell you what that means to our pitching staff,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He pitched very well in spring training. It was very hard to send him down and he knew it, too. I had a long talk with him and told him, ‘You’ll get your opportunity if you go down to Triple-A and throw the ball.”‘

Kinney, who allowed one run and three hits in 6 1/3 innings, went 2-2 with a 5.10 ERA in eight starts as a rookie in 2000 but spent all of last season in the minor leagues. He was brought up this week when Joe Mays was put on the disabled list because of inflammation in his right elbow.

Kinney, whose last start in the majors was Sept. 30, 2000, admitted that he had to walk on the mound for a bit before Friday’s game to “make sure everything was the same.” He left the park after Saturday’s game with his ears still ringing with cheers from the crowd of 30,146.

“Once the game started and the crowd got going it felt pretty good,” Kinney said. “This was one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had.”

Kinney had a 10.13 ERA when he was called up Thursday, most of that coming in an April 7 game against Tucson in which he was rocked for nine runs and four homers.

On Saturday, with the help of catcher A.J. Pierzynski, he stayed ahead in the count and then used his curveball, slider and changeup to finish off hitters.

Pierzynksi made one adjustment with two outs in the fourth after Kinney’s wild pitch sent runners to second and third.

“I chewed him out and asked him what the heck was he doing,” Pierzynski said. “He had lost it [concentration] for two hitters, and I didn’t know what was going on.”

Bradley then tapped to first to end the inning.

“That got me locked back in the game,” Kinney said.

The Twins took a 5-0 lead through five innings, highlighted by an RBI double by Jay Canizaro in the second and solo home runs by Torii Hunter in the fourth and Doug Mientkiewicz in the fifth.

“Matt was fun to watch,” Mientkiewicz said. ” You know, when I came to the park [Saturday] he was already dressed at 3 p.m. [for a game that started at 8 p.m.]. That had me concerned. [But] if he can build off this, it’s a hell of a start.”

Bobby Kielty led off the second inning with a walk, moved up on Pierzynski’s bloop single and scored on Jay Canizaro’s double. Jacque Jones drove in Pierzynski with a sacrifice fly.

Minnesota made it 4-0 in the fourth when Hunter led off with an opposite-field homer to right, his sixth, and Dustan Mohr doubled and scored on a wild pitch.

Mientkiewicz’s homer, his first, put the Twins up by five in the fifth.

One positive for the Indians was Einar Diaz’s play behind the plate. He caught Cristian Guzman trying to steal second in the first and threw out Canizaro trying to take third on a wild pitch by Drese.

Before Saturday, Cleveland catchers had allowed 20 steals in 27 attempts and Diaz had thrown out only four of 19 runners.

LaTroy Hawkins relieved Kinney and used a double play to get out of the seventh, but walked John McDonald starting the eighth, allowed a single to Matt Lawton and was replaced by J.C. Romero.

Ricky Gutierrez made it 5-2 with an RBI single, but Romero struck out Ellis Burks looking and got Jim Thome and pinch-hitter Travis Fryman on an inning-ending groundout.

Pierzynski added an RBI single in the eighth off Mark Wohlers, but Kielty was thrown out at the plate by left fielder Russell Branyan.

“That’s how it goes sometimes,” Lawton said. “But this team has character and guys will come out tomorrow and win a game in this series.”