Another day, another injury.

I didn't get to see much of this one since I was going to an Inland Empire Sixty-Sixers game to get a replica San Bernardino Spirit Griffey jersey. I didn't miss much. For some reason, I didn't like Liriano matching up against the Brewers, but I wasn't expecting this. Add to that Delmon's injury and it's getting awfully hard to be hopeful about this season. Delmon wasn't having a good season on the whole, but he's been hitting better of late. Now it sounds like he's going to be out for awhile. Twins called it just a sprain, but when a guy gets carted off the field, that usually is more than a couple weeks for recovery. I wouldn't be surprised if Morneau returns to the field before Delmon does.

It's been a busy weekend, so I'll keep this short. Scott Baker is very good. Danny Valencia is underappreciated.  Bert Blyleven doesn't know what he's talking about. Scott, keep on throwing those high fastballs. Danny, keep on pulling those balls with authority.

Discuss.

Something amazing has been going on in the Upper Midwest.

The Minnesota Red Wings are starting to makes some noise. They were originally the Rochester Red Wings, the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, until they were promoted en masse earlier this season to replace the original big leaguers due to injuries, bad attitudes and general suckitude.

"We just figured we would give some other guys an opportunity and see what happens. It's not like they could be much worse," said Wings manager Ron Gardenhire, who's team at one point had dropped to 20 games below .500 and had allowed the most runs and scored the fewest in the American league.

The Wings have cut a 16 1/2-game deficit down to 10 games in a little over a week as they have won eight of 10 games just as the red-hot Cleveland Indians finally started to cool off. The Wings are surprising many with their surge in the mediocre AL Central, but Jim Mandelaro, a baseball writer and blogger for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, is not one of them.

"We joke in the press box about how players do BETTER in Minnesota than Rochester, but it’s true. I’ll never know why, but it’s true," Mandelero wrote in his blog.

The Wings still have a long ways to go to give their fans real hope of pulling off a comeback to trump all the comebacks of recent years that their parent club has pulled off, but they at least are showing that they are capable of playing a much better brand of baseball, the kind of play that might just allow them to earn their Twins name back.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire rubbed the champagne out of his eyes as he reflected on the wild ride of the past five months that had concluded with the franchise's third world championship following another epic seven-game World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

"I've never had as much fun managing a team as I have these past five months," Gardenhire said. "But I've never been as miserable managing a team as I was the first two months."

So, what keyed the turnaround?

"No. 1 was getting healthy," Gardenhire said. "It was ridiculous there for awhile. They should have just called us the Red Wings. I'd never seen anything like it. Once we got our horses back, we started to play like we expected to. Then we started to get our bullpen straightened out as well as healthy. Chuck James was just a godsend. He gave us three strong lefties along with Glen Perkins and Jose Mijares. Then we could match up Slama with righties, who have a real tough time with his motion. Of course, just getting Joe Nathan healthy enough to resume his closer role was big so Cappy could go back to setting up.

"But what I think really helped us turn it up to a high level was getting back to Twins-brand baseball."

Was there any point in the season to point to that began the turnaround?

"That series in Kansas City in the beginning of June," Gardenhire said. "We had almost the entire starting lineup on the DL or on the bench with injuries, so we had almost no power at all in the lineup, so we talked to the guys about just being more aggressive with the small ball. Taking extra bases, hitting-and-running, bunting, that sort of thing.

"Lexi (Casilla) and Benny (Revere) really took to it.  It was fun to watch."

That series was during Casilla's resurgence. Casilla had nearly played himself off the roster with his terrible hitting and inconsistent defense the first six weeks of the season, but Casilla turned it around and became a key member of the Twins and formed an exciting double-play combo with Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Revere, of course, took advantage of the injuries and played so well he eventually displaced Delmon Young as the starting left fielder.

With Revere and then Nishioka added to the lineup along with Casilla and Denard Span, Piranhas II: The Comeback was born.