CLEVELAND — Twins righthander Nick Blackburn pitched seven terrific innings against a hot-hitting Cleveland squad, and Justin Morneau smashed his fourth home run, but a quiet force in Friday night’s 5-1 victory was catcher Jose Morales.

He went 2-for-4 with an RBI, lifting his average to .286, and one of his outs was a smash to second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera.

Beyond that, Morales helped coax Blackburn through some tricky spots.

“He can hit. We know that,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “The catching is something he’s learning, and this is a tough place to learn, but he’s handling himself real nice. He studies the teams. We talked about a couple of situations with lefthanders up there, not giving in and using all your pitches, and he understands that a little bit better.”

Morales, 26, is probably headed back to Class AAA Rochester when Joe Mauer returns from the disabled list, but Morales is making that decision tougher on the Twins. He has started three of the past four games, with veteran Mike Redmond batting .214 after an early season groin injury.

“This is a good run for the young man,” Gardenhire said. “He’s showing us he can play up here. We were hoping that, and he’s doing really good, so we’ll see what happens when Joe gets up here.”

Mauer had two run-scoring hits for Class A Fort Myers on Friday, going 2-for-4 with a double. He caught seven innings and didn’t allow a stolen base, though he did have a passed ball. Still, the reports have been encouraging, and it sounds like Mauer will be ready to return by next Friday, if not earlier.

His return could spell the end of this big league stint for Morales, but Morales isn’t sweating that.

“Like I always say, we’re talking about Joe Mauer — the best catcher in baseball,” Morales said. “It’s out of my hands, I can’t control that. I control trying to go out there and do the best I can, and hopefully it takes care of itself.”

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