As a franchise, the Twins are a wonderful underdog, almost-contracted, low-budget, stadium-challenged story. As a team, they win a lot of games just like the Yankees -- with blue-chip players.

Thursday night at the Metrodome, Eric Milton dominated the white-flag White Sox, earning a 6-0 victory at the Metrodome on the power of Michael Cuddyer's first career grand slam.

Milton pitched a complete-game three-hitter, striking out 11 and walking none while throwing 131 pitches, a total that usually makes manager Ron Gardenhire blanch. It was Milton's first complete-game shutout since May 8, 2001, and the Twins' first of the season.

"When I saw him in the dugout after the eighth, well, I'm not enough man to take the ball from him," Gardenhire said. "He'd knock me out."

By flattening the Sox, Milton became the first Twins pitcher to win at least 13 games in three consecutive seasons since Frank Viola did it four times from 1985-88.

Milton spent the first few innings searching for velocity, but his second-to-last pitch of the game was clocked at a game-high 96 miles per hour.

"When he gets deep into a game, he smells it," said pitching coach Rick Anderson. "He's a closer."

Anderson noted that Milton has been relying on his fastball, which makes his off-speed pitches devastating. "He threw 14 curves and 11 changeups," Anderson said. "He went pound, pound, pound, pound . . , whoops!"

In 1996, the Yankees made Milton their first-round draft pick. In 1997, the Twins made Cuddyer theirs. Milton, who pitched at the University of Maryland, came to the Twins in the Chuck Knoblauch trade and made it to the majors with a pitching-poor franchise in 1998. Cuddyer, a high school player without a natural position in the pros, has finally made it four years later as a contributor in the Twins' crowded outfield.

Cuddyer's shot will prove heartening to the Twins' front office and scouting department, but it was Milton's fastball that could be more significant down the stretch, since front-line pitching is what the Twins will need in the playoffs.

And, yes, the Twins can afford to think that way: They now lead the second-place Sox by 15 games and haven't lost a series since mid-June. "Win every series -- that's been our motto," Milton said. "We had a chance to lose one tonight, and I didn't want that to happen." Milton is 13-7. He is 5-1 since losing to Chicago on June 25.

Cuddyer took the suspense out of the game early. Jacque Jones led off the third with a double, held as Cristian Guzman beat out a roller to short, then scored on Corey Koskie's single.

David Ortiz forced Koskie at second, and White Sox shortstop Royce Clayton was unable to complete the double play, throwing high.

That would cost White Sox starter Dan Wright. With two outs and the bases loaded, Wright fell behind Cuddyer 0-and-2, then threw a fastball he meant to keep down and in. Instead, it went up and out.

Cuddyer was 0-for-8 on the homestand before that at-bat. "That was a big moment for him -- and the ballclub," Gardenhire said.

"I was going to give my first home run ball to my Dad, and the bat to my Mom," Cuddyer said. "Now I can disperse one to each."

Disperse? That's what Milton did to the White Sox. "There's no big secret with Eric Milton," said Sox slugger Paul Konerko. "It's basically, 'I've got a good arm, and I'm going to come after you. Hit it, and it's good for you. If not, I'm going to throw a shutout."

That's what blue chips do.