MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Terry Mulholland was too smart for Cleveland.

The 41-year-old left-hander pitched six strong innings and shut down the Indians for the second time in a week, leading the Minnesota Twins to an 8-1 victory Saturday.

''He's amazing,'' teammate Justin Morneau said. ''It just shows his experience and how he can pick up hitters' tendencies and use it against them.''

Morneau and Torii Hunter hit consecutive homers for the first-place Twins, who opened a six-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central.

Mulholland yielded one earned run in eight innings at Jacobs Field last Sunday, when Minnesota snapped the Indians' six-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory in 10 innings.

Cleveland, which pulled within a game of the Twins last Saturday, has lost six straight since. The Indians have been outscored 43-12 during their skid, and Minnesota has won five of six during that span.

''Going back-to-back against any team is pretty tough,'' Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. ''That got us feeling pretty good and that's what this game's all about.''

This time, Mulholland (4-6) allowed just one run and seven hits, striking out four and walking two.

''I tried to mix it up and take what I did in Cleveland last week and build on it,'' he said. ''I made some adjustments and threw pitches in a different order.''

In their past six games, Twins starters are 4-0 with a 2.93 ERA.

''We had better at-bats against him, but the result wasn't much different,'' Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. ''We're still in this thing. We've proven that just by what we did over a week's time.''

Cristian Guzman drove in three runs for the Twins, and Corey Koskie led off the eighth with his 20th homer. Koskie has a nine-game hitting streak, going 14-for-34 (.412) with five homers.

Chad Durbin (5-5), who had not allowed a run in 14 innings coming in, gave up six runs - five earned - in 4 1-3 innings. He lost for the first time since returning from the minors on July 24.