Pirates come to town for a rare visit against our battlin' Minnesota Twins. Season previews had the Pirates tanking this year so their record of 3 games over .500 and 5 games out of the second Wild Card slot had the Pittsburgh front office scrambling to add players. Which meant hello Chris Archer. Besides Archer, I didn't recognize a single player on the Pirates. I am sure the WGOM Allegheny version of this game log is probably saying the same thing about the Twins (Joe Mauer Exempted of course).

Jameson Taillon on the mound for the Pirates, who I think pitched decently against the Twins way back in April. He had a nice 2-run complete game last time out and has decent stats for the year. Jake Odorizzi for the Twins. He's been kinda o.k. but not good enough for me to look up his stats.

First pitch at 7:10p Entering the dog days of the season Citizens.

Is it September yet? No, it's not, but it kind of feels that way with all of the new faces in the dugout already. Last night Tyler Austin made his Twins debut with a true outcomes triple play - a walk, two strikeouts and a two-run dinger. Today Kohl Stewart, the Twins 2013 fourth round draft pick, will make his first major league appearance. He'll face off against Matt Boyd, who sports a 6-10 record and a 4.33 ERA. There are still a lot of games left on the schedule, but at this point watching the Twins play is sort of like watching the sausage get made. Play ball!

It was an eventful week in Twins Territory. It started with the approach of the non-waiver trade deadline and the departures of Eddie Escobar, Brian Dozier, Zach Duke, Ryan Pressley and Lance Lynn. In return the Twins got Logan Forsythe and a gaggle of farm hands, including a couple of power arms, that may or may not be the future of the team. TINSTAAPP. In addition by subtraction, Taylor (Whatsa) Motter was shunted off to Rochester because he plays baseball like Taylor Motter. To fill the holes left by trades, the front office recalled Miguel Sano, Addison Reed, Gabriel Moya and Trevor May. Somehow amidst all the movement and excitement, Matt Belisle and his 8.15 ERA/-6 RAR managed to elude the grim reaper and remains on the 25 man roster, a monument to the staying power of confirmation bias and mediocrity, I suppose. Over the course of the week the Twins won three games and lost three games and dropped another game behind the division-leading Clevelanders. So while we can safely settle our hopes and dreams of a postseason berth in for another long winter's nap, there are still two months of Twins baseball to watch before we turn our attention to football or basketball or hockey or curling or bowling or the occasional acid flashback for diversion. The week was finished off yesterday with the induction of Johan Santana into the Twins Hall of Fame. He will forever be the player by which Rule 5 draft picks are measured, and we tip our hats and raise our glasses to El Presidente.

Our present day pitching Santana toes the rubber for his third start of the season today as the Twins look to complete a sweep of the even more hapless Royals. Kansas City counters with Danny Duffy, so it's probably best to keep the brooms in the closet in the event of an assbat outbreak, at least until we we get into the Royals' bullpen. Play ball!