It's nice to win.

Trevor May pitched a solid game.  He pitched three perfect innings, then came down with a case of OBI Syndrome.  Dr. Rick Anderson then came out and provided a prescription that cured it.  We haven't heard what was said, but it must have been something like, "When you run into The Wall, throw your fastball through that wall."  May did, and OBI Syndrome was gone.

After Jordan Schafer struck out in the second inning, we speculated in the game log that perhaps his balloon had popped.  Schafer then said, "Pop this!" and popped a two-run homer over the fence in his next at-bat.  Later in the game he almost created a run by himself, getting a single, stealing second, stealing third, and scoring on a sacrifice fly.  He boosted his average back to .308 with 14 stolen bases.  Our opinion of him remains unchanged, but we have to give him credit for what he's done.  Without his contributions, the Twins would not have won the game.

Glen Perkins came on in the ninth and again struggled, giving up a home run and a single before retiring the side.  In his last seven appearances (5.1 innings), Perkins has given up seven runs on nine hits and two walks.  Four of the hits have been home runs.  He's had two blown saves and three losses over that stretch.  Small sample size, obviously, but with relievers we're always dealing with small sample sizes.  I don't want to make too much of it, and I'm certainly not suggesting the Twins take him out of the closer role, but those numbers are obviously not good.

So the Twins return home to take on the Detroits, and wouldn't it be fun to do some damage to their playoff chances?  As they say, this is essentially the Twins playoffs here.  We don't know if they've decided to shelve Tommy Milone for the rest of the season, but they apparently don't feel he's ready to go yet, because Anthony Swarzak is scheduled to pitch for the Twins.  He'll face some bum named Max Scherzer, who's only 16-5, 3.19, 1.17 WHIP with 232 strikeouts in 200.1 innings.  On paper, it may look like a mismatch, but as Kenny Mayne used to tell us, they don't play the games on paper, they play them inside of TV sets.

The victory was the Twins' sixty-third of the year, assuring that they will not lose a hundred games.  Losing ninety games again remains a distinct possibility, but not really.  We've started our season-ending fourteen game winning streak!  We'll just have to settle for 76-86!