Hope is a good thing, but it can be slippery as a greased eel and just as hard to hold onto. For the past few weeks I've been pretty down on this team and at times I've shaken my head in disgust and declared them hopeless, but in the past week or two we've seen some signs that the team may be coming to life again. The two Eds continue to lead the Twins offense with Escobar taking an AL Player of the Week nod and Rosario playing like a bona fide All-Star (.379/.455/.828/1.282 in June). Adrianza's bat has come alive and hopefully his base running competence isn't far behind. I am heartened by the decision to move Miguel Sano to Fort Meyers for a complete retooling of his plate approach. I'll leave swing mechanics to the experts, but he definitely needs to work on pitch recognition, plate discipline, and situational hitting if he wants to avoid being tagged the next Delmon Young (nobody doubts his talent). Joe Mauer is back, Polanco will return to the field in a couple of weeks, and it sounds like Ervin Santana should be available for the second half. A win today would put the Twins four games under .500 and just three games from the division lead, and I like the way the team is trending. In April, the Twins posted a winning percentage of just .364. In May it was up a full 100 points to .464, and for June it's up to .600. That may or may not be enough winning to make it to October. If the Twins play .600 ball the rest of the season they'd only net about 88 wins. While they sneaked into the playoffs last year with 85 wins, they also finished 17 games behind Cleveland in the division, which is not exactly the catbird's seat, and the wildcard competition is looking to be much tougher this time around.

Jake Odorizzi (3-3, 4.19 ERA) takes the hill for the Twins who are looking to not only sweep the Indians but win their last six contests against them. The Tribe counters with 23-year old Shane "Don't call me Justin" Bieber (0-0, 6.35 ERA) in just his second major league start. Play ball!

Runs have scored on balks and home runs.

It seems like I just wrote this game log. Twins and Tigers battling for second place... Twins need to win these kind of games if they are going to make any noise in the later half of the season.... Fun playing against Gardy again... Basically the Twins have been treading water for a while now so it may be sink or swim time.

Jake Odorizzi on the mound for the Twins. I've liked what he's given the team, and expect more of the same tonight. Blaine Hardy on for the Tigers and he's been decent this year as well.

6:10p start time. Hopefully the #mprraccoon caper will be over and we can concentrate on some AL Central Division baseball.

Because baseball breaks your heart, because baseball is designed to break your heart, the Twins' current season of mediocrity in the wake of great expectations shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. But that realization doesn't make it any easier to watch. It's supremely frustrating, after years of waiting semi-patiently, to finally have a pretty solid starting rotation only to see it, more often than not, let down by the bullpen or the offense or both. Injuries are part of every season for every team, but the Twins luck in that regard this year has been worse than most. Ervin Santana remains hobbled on the DL, his rehab halted for a week by discomfort in his middle finger, and there's no firm timetable for his return. Sano was out for more than a month, long enough to forget how to lay off a slider, apparently. He's hitting just slightly north of Mendoza and striking out like he has food waiting in the dugout. Castro, never a great stick but at times able to deliver a clutch knock, is gone for the season and our current backstops are hitting .216 and .174. Joe Mauer, after a heartening resurgence last year, remains on the DL with concussion-type issues. Byron Buxton, back on the DL with the same bad toe that landed him there in May, has an OPS+ of 6. Not 60, just the single digit, six. To date, Logan Morrison continues to be a bust of an acquisition sporting a .192 BA and slugging just .341, and Robby Grossman is performing only a few points better up and down the slash line. Brian Dozier, who got actual MVP votes last year, has dropped nearly 130 OPS points under last season's mark. Add in Polanco's 80-game suspension that's forced Adrianza and his banjo into the daily lineup and you have a batting order with more holes than a golf course. It's unequivocal that Eddie Rosario and Eduardo Escobar have been carrying this team offensively for some time now, but they can't do enough between them to make up for the weak hitting and below par production in the rest of the lineup. We have a pretty good record in games where we score four runs or more. That has to be the daily benchmark for the offense going forward if the Twins are going to amount to more than a hummock of legumes this year. Rookie phenom Romero takes the mound for the Twins today, his last few starts after a stellar debut in his first few have seen a steady regression toward the mean and indicate that scouting has more or less caught up to him now. Tropeono toes the rubber for the Halos. Play ball!