Twins Nation

Twins Notes

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:05:40 GMT

The Twins won the opening game of their series against the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday. All 7 of their runs came in the first 3 innings, and were helped considerably by Milwaukee errors and miscues in the field.

Francisco Liriano's struggles continued. He got the win, but struggled to get through 5 innings with 117 pitches thrown. He allowed 7 hits and 5 walks to Brewer hitters. He came up with big inning-ending strikeouts in the 4th and 5th innings, which prevented what could have been more damage.

Joe Mauer had an 0-5 day at the plate, and suddenly his batting average has fallen below .400 to .395.

Jason Kubel sat out the game with illness. He left Sunday's game early, and apparently the day off Monday wasn't enough for him to recover.

Denard Span felt fine after his first game in Rochester on Monday night. He played again last night, but left the game early after getting hit on the hand by a pitch. That's some bad luck, but Joe Christensen reports that it likely won't affect his planned activation for Thursday. The Twins desperately need Span back at the top of the lineup.

The Twins have again improved their record to .500. Hovering around that mark is fast becoming the theme of this season. That's a theme they better shake if the Detroit Tigers keep winning.

Nick Blackburn will face Braden Looper tonight. That's a matchup the Twins should win.

Twins make pointless bullpen move

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:14:00 GMT

The Twins on Monday designated RHP Luis Ayala for assignment and called up 27 year-old RHP Bobby Keppel from AAA Rochester. In the grand scheme of things, the move is probably pointless. They've basically swapped one bad pitcher for another one. Still, the move raises a few questions in my mind.

I'm not sure what the Twins were expecting when they signed Ayala to a 1-year $1.3 million contract in the offseason. His numbers this year have been almost perfectly in line with his career marks, but apparently Bill Smith and Company have decided that's not what they're looking for. If they expected the 31-year old to somehow defy numbers posted in over 350 career big league innings, they're absolutely insane.

On a similar note, they must believe that Keppel's strong start in Rochester is proof that he has finally turned the corner, after proving to be a bad pitcher at both the minor league and big league levels for 6 years. Keppel has posted a 4.53 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in nearly 1,000 minor league innings. He has a 2.43 ERA and 1.15 WHIP this season (in 55+ innings), but that's so far from his minor league norms that it's more than likely an aberration. Luis Ayala had just as good a chance, if not better, at pitching well over the next month than Bobby Keppel will.

Keppel is only the latest addition in what has been a serious revolving door of relievers that has seen Philip Humber, Jesse Crain, Juan Morillo, Brian Duensing, and Craig Breslow come and go. While I admire that the Twins' front office is willing to admit the bullpen is a problem, I'd like to actually see them do something about it. They should've addressed the bullpen situation appropriately in the offseason, but now they may be left to watch someone else capture the AL Central because of the handful of games that were surrendered by the relief pitching.

I hope Keppel has a terrific run and makes me look like an idiot, but given enough time his numbers will start to reflect what he's always been--a bad pitcher. It never fails.

Finding Encouragement in Liriano's Start

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:04:40 GMT

The Pittsburgh Pirates turned the tables on the Twins Wednesday night. One night after they lost 8-2, they beat the Twins by the same score. 5 of their 8 runs came by way of the homerun. For a team that entered the game tied for last in baseball in home runs (37), getting 3 in one night is an unusual accomplishment.

Francisco Liriano allowed 2 of the home runs and took his eighth loss of the season. However, there were some encouraging signs from the start. Liriano had allowed 34 walks in his 13 previous starts this season, which is above his career average. On Tuesday he allowed just 1 walk and didn't get deep into counts with as many hitters. In fact, he was able to get through 7 innings of pitching for just the 3rd time all season, and first time sine May 4th.

Liriano never seemed to be in much of a jam. Both home runs just happened to come when a runner was on base.

Sean Henn let the game get away by allowing 3 runs in the 8th inning. He walked a batter, gave up a home run and then walked another batter before Luis Ayala was called upon to complete the game. Ayala allowed the inherited runner to score.

Game Notes

Joe Mauer was 1-4 with a double and a walk. His average sits at .425.
Michael Cuddyer had 2 hits, including a triple, and 2 walks.
Joe Crede drove in both Twins runs with a double in the 3rd inning.

The Twins and Pirates will close out the series at 12:10 today at the Metrodome. Nick Blackburn (5-2, 3.31 ERA) will face off against Zach Duke (7-4, 3.10 ERA).

Roster Updates

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:00:35 GMT

The Twins have been shuffling things around a bit the past few days as they deal with injuries and struggling players. Here's a rundown of what's happened.

On Friday the Twins activated Nick Punto from the DL and optioned Alexi Casilla to AAA to make room. It was the second time this season that Casilla has been demoted.

On Saturday the Twins optioned Anthony Swarzak to AAA right after his 7 shutout innings against the Cubs. The Twins recalled catcher Jose Morales to take his place. With several hitters on the DL and the fact that Joe Mauer is often being used as DH on his offdays, Ron Gardenhire wanted to have a 3rd catcher. The move brought the Twins' pitchers down to just 11. Morales has not played in either of the 2 games since being recalled.

Yesterday the Twins activated Glen Perkins from the DL just in time for his start against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jesse Crain was optioned to AAA Rochester. Crain has struggled all season and gave up the Cubs' winning run in the 9th inning on Sunday.

The Twins also placed Denard Span, who has been out since leaving the game on June 9th with dizziness, on the Disabled list. Jason Pridie, who was the 3rd piece of the trade that acquired Delmon Young and Brendan Harris, was recalled from Rochester to fill the spot. Denard Span was diagnosed with Vestibular neuritis of the right ear, and was prescribed medication to treat the virus. It was thought that he'd be ready to play by the weekend, but that was just too long to wait, so the team decided to place him on the DL which will leave him out until June 24th.

Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede both returned to the lineup on Tuesday night after missing games with minor injuries. They combined for 4 hits and made a clear difference in the offenses ability to produce runs.

Pirates Game

The Twins beat the Pirates handily in the opening game of the series. Glen Perkins pitched 6 good innings in his comeback start and the Twins put 8 runs on the board.

Joe Mauer was 4-4 in the game to bring his batting average up to .429. He's still about 20 plate appearances short of qualifying for the AL batting title, but if you added 20 plate appearances to his total and assumed they were all outs, he'd still be batting .381--good enough for the league lead.

The Young, Cuddyer, Kubel Outfield

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:05:23 GMT

The Twins won their second consecutive game against the Oakland Athletics thanks to a 9th inning comeback sparked by the bottom of the Twins' lineup. The inning started with the score tied 3-3 and a Joe Crede triple. 2 singles, 2 walks and 2 wild pitches later the Twins had a 3-run lead with Alexi Casilla (pinch runner for Crede), Delmon Young and Matt Tolbert all scoring.

Jason Kubel had hit a pinch-hit home run for Carlos Gomez in the eighth inning to tie the game. With Denard Span out of the game with illness, it made for an interesting defensive alignment in the final two innings. Delmon Young started the game in LF. Michael Cuddyer had started the game in RF, and was moved over to CF to replace Gomez defensively. Kubel played in RF. Could that possibly be the worst defensive OF the Twins have ever put on the field?

Game Notes

Joe Mauer was 2-5 in the game as the DH, with singles in his first two at-bats.
Mike Redmond caught the game and had 2 singles and a walk.
Francisco Liriano allowed 3 runs through 6 innings while striking out 7.
Joe Nathan earned his 13th save of the season.

The Twins have a day game today (2:35 PM CT) to close out the Oakland series. They'll finally get a break from left-handed pitching with Trevor Cahill (3-5, 4.21 ERA) on the mound for the A's. Nick Blackburn (5-2, 3.30 ERA), who hasn't allowed more than 2 ER in his past 4 starts will go for the Twins.

With the Chicago Cub series coming up this weekend, the Twins will play 4 straight day games.

Great until the 9th

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:08:43 GMT

Just about everything went right for the Twins on Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics...until the 9th inning. The Twins scored 10 runs and Scott Baker had allowed just 2 hits and 0 walks through 8 innings. He came back out for the 9th inning, and things fell apart.

Baker loaded the bases with 2 hits and a walk with no outs. Jesse Crain was called upon to relieve him. Crain allowed a hit and a walk, then an Alexi Casilla error allowed another run to score. Crain wasn't able to retire a batter before Jose Mijares had to be called upon. Mijares struck out Jason Giambi, but then walked the next two batters.

The Twins finally had to call upon Joe Nathan, in an inning they once led by 10 runs, to close out the game. With the tying run on deck, it had become a save situation. Joe Nathan didn't mess around--he struck out the first two batters he faced to end the game.

Game Notes

Crain's disaster of a season continues on. He now has a 7.79 ERA through 17 1/3 innings.
Justin Morneau had a big game. He was 4-5 with his 16th home run and 2 RBI.
Jason Kubel hit his 8th home run--a 3-run shot in the 7th inning
Joe Mauer hasn't hit a home run since June 2nd, but the hits keep on coming. He had 2 singles and a walk in this game. His batting average sits at a comfortable .415. His on-base percentage is .500.
Delmon Young drove in 3 runs on 2 hits and got his first extra-base hit since April 22nd!
Denard Span left the game with dizziness, which is the second time this year he's had similar issues. Carlos Gomez replaced him and had a big 2-run double. Span will head to Minnesota to see a specialist.

Draft Notes

The Twins drafted 4 college pitchers on the first day of the draft. First, was right-hander Kyle Gibson from Missouri. Aaron Gleeman has a complete rundown.

Swarzak's last start

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:52:00 GMT

Monday night may have been Anthony Swarzak's last start for a while anyway, but his 4th inning meltdown against the Oakland Athletics probably sealed the deal. Glen Perkins is scheduled to pitch his second rehab start tonight and would be eligible to return to the team this weekend againt the Cubs.

In the 4th inning Swarzak couldn't get a ball over the plate. He walked the first two batters of the inning on 8 straight balls. Brendan Harris made a diving stop and threw out Matt Holliday at 3rd, which was a huge play at the time. Unfortunately Swarzak hit the next batter, Aaron Cunningham in the side of the helmet, knocking him out of the game. Swarzak allowed a double, retired a second batter and then walked another before Luis Ayala was called upon to relieve him.

Ayala allowed the go-ahead run in the fifth inning on a solo home run from Jack Cust and that was the end of the scoring for the game. The Twins lost 4-3, marking yet another narrow loss for the Twins. The Twins fell to 3 games under .500.

If Perkins is truly healthy and ready to go, it's hard to imagine Swarzak getting another start. He debut start was a good one and he followed it up with an OK second start. His past two haven't lasted more than 4 innings though, and his high walk rate throughout is a sign that he could use some more work in Rochester.

Game Notes

Joe Mauer was 2-4 with 2 singles.
Justin Morneau was 0-4 with 3 strikeouts.
The Twins had no extra base hits in the game.
Sean Henn pitched 2 1/3 innings without allowing a baserunner.

Scott Baker will try to end the 3-game skid tonight at 9:05 CT.

Twins-Mariners series recap

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:02:04 GMT

On Friday night Francisco Liriano bounced back with a pretty good start against Seattle. He held them to 1 run through 6 innings. He still threw a lot of pitches and walked 4 batters, but he managed to avoid the disastrous innings that had plagued him recently.

The game headed into extra innings and after the Mariners accurately predicted Ron Gardenhire's squeeze attempt and pitched out trapping Joe Mauer between 3rd and home, Matt Tolbert managed to hit a fly ball to deep left field. The ball was misplayed by Wladimir Balentien for an error and it allowed the Twins to win 2-1.

The next two games of the series were close, but didn't go the Twins' way.

Nick Blackburn turned in another solid start on Saturday, allowing 1 run through 7 innings, but the offense just wasn't there for him. The top of the lineup (Denard Span, Mauer and Justin Morneau) went a combined 0-12 against lefty Jarrod Washburn.

The decision to use Sean Henn in the 8th inning with a 1-1 tie seemed questionable to me, but in the end the offense needs to score more than 1 run to win games.

On Sunday Kevin Slowey struggled all day long and wasn't able to make it out of the fifth inning after surrending 4 runs on 10 hits and 2 walks. He allowed 3 home runs to Seattle.

The Twins drew 6 walks from Seattle pitching on Sunday, but were never able to capitalize with runners in scoring position. In total, the Twins were 0-8 with RISP. Seattle actually left more runners on base, so the score could've been a lot worse.

R.A. Dickey pitched another 2 1/3 innings of scoreless long relief. He has been nothing short of brilliant over the past month. He posted a 1.86 ERA in 19 1/3 innings in May and has yet to allow a run in 2 appearanced (4 1/3 inning) in June.

Visiting Oakland

West coast swings have been rough on the Twins in recent years, and this one is off to the same kind of start. The Twins had a golden opportunity to take over first place in the AL Central on this trip, but the 2 losses now place them 3.5 games behind division leading Detroit.

The Twins will need to right the ship against Oakland, a team that finds itself in last place in the AL West with a 25-30 record, but has won 6 straight.

The Twins will face lefty starters in the first 3 games--Josh Outman (3-0, 3.02 ERA) on Monday, Brett Anderson (3-5, 4.97 ERA) on Tuesday and Dallas Braden (5-5, 3.41 ERA) on Wednesday. They'll finish with righty Trevor Cahill (3-5, 4.21 ERA) on Thursday.

The Twins will send out Anthony Swarzak, Scott Baker, Francisco Liriano and Nick Blackburn to face them. Swarzak might be seeing his last start with Glen Perkins due to make his 2nd rehab start early this week.

Baker and 1 through 4

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:58:00 GMT

The Twins managed a 2-1 series victory over the Cleveland Indians with a blowout 11-3 victory on Thursday afternoon.

The most encouraging aspect of the victory was Scott Baker's performance. While he's certainly had some good starts through the season, he's had more poor ones. On Thursday he managed to hold a decent Cleveland offense to just 2 runs over 7 innings while striking out a career-high 10 batters. He walked just 1 and allowed scattered 6 hits.

Offensively it was the same old story--lots of production from the top half of the lineup, and little to nothing from the bottom half.

Denard Span was 1-4 with a walk and a home run.

Joe Mauer was 3-4 with a walk. He scored all 4 times he reached base. He's now batting .436 with an otherwordly .519 on-base percentage.

Justin Morneau was 3-3 with 2 walks and his 15th home run of the season. He drove in 3 RBI to bring his season total to 50.

Jason Kubel did the bulk of the damage with 2 3-run home runs in the game. He had a single and a walk as well. Kubel also played RF in Cuddyer's absence, marking the first time he's played the position this year.

Michael Cuddyer missed his 3rd straight game with the sore finger, but is reportedly making positive progress. He's expected to take batting practice before the game today, and should be back in the lineup this weekend.

The bottom 5 in the Twins lineup had just 3 hits and NO walks in 17 at-bats compared to the top 4 who had 10 hits and 5 walks in 15 at-bats. That kind of contrast has been quite evident all season with the top 4 all having career years.

Weekend in Seattle

The Twins will start a West Coast stretch with a series in Seattle. Francisco Liriano will face Felix Hernandez for the third time this season. The Twins were beat handily by Felix on April 6th, but managed to tag him for 6 runs through 4 innings on May 9th for a victory.

The game is a big one for Liriano, who has turned in 3 straight 4-inning starts, and has a 6.60 ERA and 2-7 record for the season. He's looked good at times, but always seems to break down suddenly, as he did in the 3rd inning against Tampa Bay on Saturday. Liriano actually leads Twins starters in strikeouts with 50, but unfortunately also leads in walks with 28 allowed.

Mauer even better in June

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:45:00 GMT

Joe Mauer hit 11 home runs, batted .414 and had an on-base percentage of .500 for the month of May, which is nothing short of amazing. In his first game of the month of June, he managed to step it up a notch.

Mauer was 3-for-3 with a walk and hit his 12th home run of the season. He's now just 1 shy of his career high of 13 home runs in 2006. What's interesting is that all 3 of his hits came against left-handed pitching, which helps close the large gap in his platoon splits. Coming into the game Mauer was hitting .493 against RHP and .250 against LHP. The 3 hits bring the LHP average to .314.

Mauer also drove in 3 of the 4 Twins runs, which gives him an RBI total of 35 on the year. That's good for second on the team behind Justin Morneau's 47 (Morneau has nearly double the at-bats).

Injuries impact lineup

Michael Cuddyer missed the game with a finger injury and Joe Crede missed with swelling in his knee. Having both out of the lineup makes a hug difference. Note the lineup from last night's game:

Span
Mauer
Morneau
Kubel
Harris
Young
Buscher
Gomez
Casilla

After getting by the first 4, it's not a very frightening lineup. In fact, all the damage last night was done by the top of the lineup--namely Denard Span and Mauer. The bottom 5 were 3-for-17 with 1 run scored and 0 RBI. The top 4 were 7-for-14 with 3 runs scored and 4 RBI. Adding Cuddyer and Crede to the 5 and 6 spots in the lineup makes a huge difference.

Slowey has 8 wins

Kevin Slowey pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing 2 runs. He earned his 8th win of the season, good for 2nd best in baseball. He and Nick Blackburn have been holding the rotation together over the past month while Francisco Liriano and Scott Baker, the supposed top 2 starters on the team, have struggled.

Wednesday's Game

Anthony Swarzak will get his 3rd start of the season against Cliff Lee, who has had a pretty good year despite his 2-6 record. He posted a 2.57 ERA in the month of May, while never allowing more than 3 runs in a start.

Both Cuddyer and Crede remain questionable for the game.

Blackburn ends skid

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:25:00 GMT

Nick Blackburn won his 3rd consecutive game and put an end to the Twins' 3-game losing streak on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays. Blackburn allowed solo home runs to Carlos Pena and Matt Joyce, and he was able to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the 5th inning. 4 of Blackburn's 5 wins this year have come following a Twins loss, including his past 3 wins.

His opponent, Matt Garza, seemed to be pitching even better. By the 6th inning, a Brendan Harris solo home run was the only costly mistake he had made. In the 6th inning Denard Span reached on a bunt single and was later driven in by Justin Morneau. In the 7th inning the Twins gave Blackburn the lead when Carlos Gomez blooped a single into shallow right to score Brian Buscher.

Michael Cuddyer left the game in the second inning after a strikeout in his first at bat with an injured finger, but it was reported to not be too serious.

Game Notes

With Joe Mauer having a full day off, Mike Redmond had a 2-4 day at the plate.
In replacement of Cuddyer, Delmong Young was 1-3 with 2 strikeouts. He has struck out an astonishing 15 times in his past 7 games.
Joe Nathan picked up his 9th save of the season. He pitched a perfect 9th inning, striking out 2.

The Twins have a much needed off day today, before hosting the Cleveland Indians for 3 games. Cleveland is coming off a 9th inning walk-off victory against the Yankees and also swept Tampa Bay in a 4-game series last week. Although they're in last place in the AL Central, they've won 8 of their last 12 and are beginning to close the gap.

Detroit has a 4-game lead over the 2nd place Chicago White Sox and the Twins are just 1/2 game behind the Sox. Cleveland rounds out the bottom of the division, but trails the Twins by just 3 games.

Offense comes up short

Fri, 29 May 2009 11:51:00 GMT

Anthony Swarzak put together a decent start, allowing 3 runs through 6 innings, but the offense couldn't get much going against Josh Beckett on Thursday. Jason Varitek's 2 solo homers against Swarzak and a close play on a sacrifice fly in the seventh were enough for Boston to win this one.

Beckett struck out the first 4 batters he faced, before Joe Crede hit his 9th home run of the season. Crede had just returned from missing 3 games with a bruised hand. The Twins ended up with just 5 hits and struck out 10 times on the day.

In the seventh inning, with the Red Sox leading 2-1 and a runner on 3rd base, Dustin Pedroia hit a sacrifice fly to Michael Cuddyer in right. Cuddyer's throw was perfect and Mike Redmond's tag met base runner Jeff Bailey's hand at the plate almost simultaneously. The runner was called safe. Redmond popped up quickly to argue the call and just as quickly was thrown out of the game.

Redmond was pretty angry and got close to home plate umpire Todd Tichenor, but never made contact. The ejection seemed to come way quicker than it should of. Ron Gardenhire was ejected moments later for arguing the ejection of Redmond. Joe Mauer, who was the DH, had to be moved to C, causing the Twins to forfeit the DH for the remainder of the game. It was all bullpen work from that point on, so it didn't have much of an impact. No pitcher had to bat.

The Twins are in Tampa Bay for a 3-game series this weekend againt the World Series runner ups. The Rays have not had such a magical year and are on a 5-game losing streak right now. Scott Baker will get the start tonight against James Shields.

Span thinks Steve Phillips belongs on public access TV

Thu, 28 May 2009 11:45:00 GMT

The Twins beat the Boston Red Sox for their 6th win in the last 7 games. The win brought the Twins back to .500 with a 24-24 record, and pulled them ahead of Kansas City in the standings. They still trail the Detroit Tigers by 3.5 games.

Kevin Slowey earned his 7th win of the season. Only Zack Greinke and Roy Halladay have more than 7 wins. Slowey probably hasn't been the best pitcher on the team, but he's been good enough and gotten plenty of run support when he needed it.

Joe Crede missed his 3rd straight game with a deep bone bruise on his hand after being hit by a pitch on Sunday. He took batting practice yesterday, and is expected back in the lineup today.

Just days after ESPN broadcaster Steve Phillips claimed that Denard Span wasn't an ideal leadoff hitter and claimed that he would rather bat him in the 7 slot, Span went 4-4 with a walk and a stolen base. Sure, it's just one game, but on the season he's reaching base over 40% of the time. That's hardly #7 hitter material, as Steve suggested.

The MLB draft is coming up on June 9th, and MLB Outsider is hosting a mock draft. Seth Stohs made the first pick on behalf of the Twins, taking high school 3B Bobby Borchering.

There are a number of methods people use to rate baseball players. Some are more conventional than others. I can't help but object to the latter list for omitting Tony Batista from the top 20.

The Twins will try to win the series today at 12:10 CT . Anthony Swarzak will try to build off his impressive debut on Saturday. He'll go up against Josh Beckett, who has rebounded fantastically from a rough April.

Blackburn, Twins beat Boston

Wed, 27 May 2009 11:39:00 GMT

The Twins won their first game of the season against Boston. Nick Blackburn provided 7 strong innings, striking out a season high 7 batters while allowing just 2 runs (1 earned).

Blackburn is now 4-2 on the season with a 3.55 ERA. He's gone 7+ innings in 6 of his last 7 starts, making him the Twins' most consistent pitcher right now. Kevin Slowey has also been pretty good, with 3 straight quality starts. He'll pitch tonight against Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has struggled this season and missed some time with shoulder issues.

Justin Morneau provided the bulk of the Twins offense. After Joe Mauer drew a walk, Morneau hit his 14th home run of the season to score 3 runs.

Joe Crede sat out a second straight game after being hit in the hand with a pitch in Sunday night's game.

Delmon Young was 0-4 with 2 more strikeouts. Since returning on Sunday after his mother's death, he is 0-12 with 8 strikeouts. He hit a solid ball to deep center field last night, but was robbed by Jacoby Ellsbury's diving catch.

Joe Nathan recorded his 7th save of the season. It was his first once since May 14th against Detroit.

Several players on hot streaks

Tue, 26 May 2009 11:26:00 GMT

The Twins returned to Minneapolis after their 20-1 blowout of the White Sox and handily swept the Milwaukee Brewers in the first weekend of interleague play. The streak of wins was thanks to a combination of good starting pitching and a pretty dangerous offensive lineup.

Ron Gardenhire moved Joe Mauer to the #2 spot, which makes for a typical middle of the lineup of Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede. Considering Denard Span is a quality leadoff hitter, it's pretty tough to go 1-6 through this lineup.

Several of those players have simultaneously been on hot streaks as well.

What can you say about Joe Mauer? As a pinch hitter yesterday in the 9th, he hit his 11th home run in the month of May and 3rd in as many days. He's batting .444 with a .530 on base percentage. To put that into perspective, he's on pace to hit 66 home runs and drive in 187 RBI on the season. Those numbers would be out of this world for a complete season. Considering he missed all of April, it makes them all the more insane.

Justin Morneau, leads the team in almost every offensive category. He's batting .341 with 13 home runs and 41 RBI. In the month of May, he's batting .370 with 8 home runs...not far off of Mauer's amazing marks.

Jason Kubel missed the weekend series with a sore knee, but came back strong with 2 hits, including an RBI single, on Monday. He's batting a healthy .340/.377/.535.

Poor Michael Cuddyer has been having a career year, but hardly anyone has noticed him in the shadow of Mauer and Morneau. He hit for the cycle on Friday night and his 8 home runs on the season, put him on pace to beat his 2006 career-high mark of 24. Cuddy leads the team in strikeouts with 31, but that's hardly a surprise.

Joe Crede also has 8 home runs on the year, despite playing in just 34 games. More importantly, he's played some solid defense at 3B. Never was the importance of his defense more evident than in the 3rd inning yesterday when 3 balls made it past Brian Buscher into left field yesterday. Admittedly, all 3 were hard hit and difficult plays to make, but I'm confident Crede would have made at least 2 of the 3 plays, which would have made for a far different 3rd inning, and possibly a victory.

The Twins are just 3-13 against the AL East this season, so with 3 games remaining against Boston followed by 3 games with the Tampa Bay Rays, now would be an ideal time to reverse that trend. The Twins currently find themselves in 3rd place in the AL Central, 4.5 games behind Detroit.