JMIVGABB

I mentioned yesterday that it seemed like, for a team that's seventeen games under .500, the Twins have rarely been swept this year.  I was hoping someone would check to see if that was actually true, but apparently no one did.  I'm not about to do the work myself, but it seems like the Twins almost always manage to win one game of a series.  They've not had a lot of long losing streaks.  They just don't have any long winning streaks.  It came true yesterday, anyway.  The Twins had lost the first three games, but they managed to salvage one.

Staff Ace Phil Hughes had another fine game.  He gave up only two hits through six innings.  The Twins offense was doing what we've seen it do too many times this year, so the score was tied at zero after six.  In the seventh, though, a pair of singles put two men on and Joe Mauer hit one to the right spot, over the head of Delmon Young.  It looked like a double, but Young showed the defensive skills we got used to seeing over nearly four seasons in Minnesota and turned it into a triple.  Mauer then scored on a sacrifice fly.

It looked like the game was in the bag, but an error got Hughes into trouble and Nick Hundley made the spirit of Earl Weaver very happy by hitting a three-run homer.  No worries, because we have Joe Mauer on our side.  A walk and an error put two men on and Mauer singled them both home.  He alertly took second on a throw to the plate, where he could score on a Kennys Vargas single.  So, of the Twins' six runs, Mauer drove in four and scored the other two.  Not bad.  If he keeps at it, this Mauer kid may turn into a pretty good ballplayer.

So the Twins come home to face the colorless footwear.  Tommy Milone, still looking for his first good start as a Twin (the first one wasn't bad, but nothing to shout about), goes for Minnesota.  He'll face Hector Noesi, who isn't all that great but who handled the Twins pretty well the last time he faced them.  Twenty-five games left, folks.  We're still on track for 85-77!