"How about that?" said Twins outfielder Michael Cuddyer, who launched a 427-foot homer against Seattle reliever Sean White in Minnesota's 9-6 victory. "The little Minnesota Twins !"

Yes, that's 20 runs, seven homers and two victories in two nights. Maybe the steroids finally reached Minnesota about 20 years after the fact.

"Yeah," Cuddyer said with a big laugh. "They finally made their way north."

"Steroids?" said Mauer, looking somewhat aghast.

I was just kidding, Joe.

"I know," he said with a chuckle.

This type of power is reminiscent of the "Two Tons of Fun" Twins who roamed Metropolitan Stadium. Those were the teams with big sluggers such as Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison and Tony Oliva. But for the past couple of nights, the current Twins have been just as explosive.

OK, so it's just two nights. But it is so out of character. The Twins' offense usually consists of two singles, a bunt and a cloud of dust. Entering Saturday's game they ranked in the bottom four in the American League in runs scored. So even if they return to form, this has been an interesting diversion.

After hitting his home run in the third, Mauer crossed the plate and was teasing his pal Morneau. "Look at me," he said. "I can do it, too." And Morneau came right back with his own drive over the fence.

"I don't want him to get too close," Morneau said. "He's supposed to be the guy who wins batting titles. I'm supposed to be the guy who hits home runs."

Morneau was quick to add, however, that he hasn't tried to match Mauer's homers. That's because when he does try to match someone's home run, bad things happen.

"I end up striking out or having a bad at-bat," he said. "On both, I had two strikes. All I was trying to do was put a good swing on it and put it in play."

On Friday night, Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher joined Mauer and Morneau in the home run column. On Saturday, Cuddyer joined Mauer and Morneau. Jason Kubel just missed hitting a home run in both games.

"We've seen some balls flying in the stands," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Pretty impressive swings. Hopefully, we'll continue to see that."

Gardenhire didn't actually see those swings in person. He was up in the clubhouse after getting beet-red in the face and feeling woozy in the dugout. At first, that seemed nothing more than a natural reaction to watching Francisco Liriano pitch in the fourth inning.

Liriano didn't allow a man to reach base over the first three innings. Then he hit Ichiro Suzuki in the back to lead off the fourth. From there, Liriano shattered into a thousand pieces. A lot of us were beet-red and feeling a bit woozy watching him as he came unglued.

But Gardenhire's problems were unrelated to Liriano's performance because, as the manager pointed out, he was already feeling poorly by the third inning and had retired to the clubhouse. Doctors kept him company for the rest of the game. After the 9-6 victory, he was feeling better and the doctors assured him it was nothing serious.

All the home runs no doubt helped buoy his spirits. The homers had the crowd of 29,552 fired up as well. They really blew the roof off the place after the back-to-back shots.

"The fans were excited; we were excited," Cuddyer said. "It was electric on the field."

And to think that before this two-game outburst, the Twins had gone five games and 208 plate appearances without a homer. Mauer, hitting a whopping .483 since rejoining the team, and Morneau, who has eight home runs, have been red hot. Cuddyer is heating up, too.

With Cuddyer, it's as if his batting eye suddenly comes into focus. When he's on, he's getting a lot of hits and a lot of walks. He can pick out the good pitches to hit. When he's not hitting, he's not walking as much, either.

Today we'll get to see if the phenomenon continues.

"They can't catch them if they're in the seats," Gardenhire noted.

He's enjoying it while it lasts.

Tom Powers can be reached at tpowers@pioneerpress.com