Where do we go from here?

So the Twins, who were in first place by a game after Sunday, are now two back after having been swept by the Royals.  Well, as we observed yesterday, it's pretty hard to beat a team of all-stars.  The question is, now what?  Is this simply a blip, a bump in the road, the kind of down stretch all teams will have at some point during the season?  Or has the clock struck midnight, has the Twins carriage turned into a pumpkin, is this the beginning of the end, do we now spend the rest of the season watching the Twins team we thought we'd see all year rather than the Twins team we got to see for the first two months?

Well, this is where I pull out two of my favorite quotes, which I've used before.  The first is from Niels Bohr, who said, "Predictions are hard, especially about the future."  The second is from Joaquin Andujar, who said, "Baseball can be summed up in one word:  youneverknow."  The fact is that I have no idea how the rest of the season will go, and neither does anyone else.  It's certainly possible that this is the beginning of the end, and we spend the rest of the season in a slow slide in the direction of ninety losses.  But it's also possible that the Twins will get things going again and will find a way to stay in contention a while longer.  We'll just have to wait and see.

A few notes about the game.  I had a church council meeting last night, so listened to only a little of the game and saw none of it.  It sounds like even before Torii Hunter's epic meltdown, the Twins were upset about the strike zone.  I have no way to judge that, but I will say that, potentially, the plate umpire can have a huge effect on a game, and it can happen in very subtle ways.  A pitch an inch or two off the plate can be a strike for one team, and a pitch an inch or two on the plate can be a ball for the other team.  It doesn't have to happen on a hundred pitches a game to have a big effect, either--it can just be ten or twelve.  A call that makes a count 3-1 instead of 2-2, or 0-2 instead of 1-1, can have a major effect on an at-bat, and if that at-bat is one of the key at-bats of the game, well, it can affect the entire game.  Again, I'm making no accusations here--I didn't even see the game.  But I will also say that after the Tim Donaghy situation in the NBA, I take nothing for granted.

The Twins made a curious roster move, bringing Jorge Polanco up from AA for one game and then sending him back to Chattanooga.  I don't understand why you burn up the second of his three options just for one game, especially when you could've either chosen to play a man short or bring up someone like Oswaldo Arcia who's option has already been used for this season.  On the other hand, I've pretty much given up trying to make sense of the Twins' player personnel moves, so I guess it is what it is and we go from there.

Paul Molitor apparently reads the wgom, as following our discussion yesterday he moved Joe Mauer out of the third spot in the order.  In fact, he shuffled spots two through four, batting them Mauer-Plouffe-Hunter rather than Hunter-Mauer-Plouffe.  As a practical matter, it's hard for me to think that move would make any difference.  That doesn't mean it was wrong or stupid, though.  It could be that Molitor thought it would have a psychological effect on his players, that shaking things up might make things better.  I don't know that something like that works, but there's not much harm in trying it, either.  Plouffe had a good game, and Hunter and Mauer didn't.  Whether the lineup switch made any difference to any of their performances is anyone's guess.

So the Twins get a day off to lick their wounds before travelling to Texas for three games.  Tommy Milone, trying to stay in the rotation, will go against Wandy Rodriguez, who for the most part has pitched pretty well this year.  Sounds like a good time to start that season-ending one hundred three-game winning streak!  We'll just have to settle for 136-26!