That was a nice surprise.

I hadn't given up on the game or anything, but going in, I thought that if the Twins won it would have to be a low-scoring game, 2-1 or 3-2.  Like the Spanish Inquisition, no one expects to score nine runs off Chris Sale.  But the Twins did it, putting together a seven-run third inning helped by some poor White Sox defense and Brian Dozier's three-run homer.

Trevor May didn't pitch great, but he pitched well enough to get by.  He somehow managed to scatter ten hits and a walk so that only two runs scored on them in 5.2 innings.  He was helped by something else unexpected, good Twins defense.  This was especially true in the first inning, when a couple of White Sox runs could have changed the entire course of the game.  But Shane Robinson threw a runner out at the plate and Dozier made a good play on a ball that looked like a hit and the Sox were denied.

Joe Mauer got three more hits.  This raises his average to .318.  One of the hits was a double, so his slugging average is now up to .412.  His OBP is now .392.  None of those figures is as good as Mauer has been in his best years, but they're still good and they're moving in the right direction.  It appears that, when healthy, Joe Mauer is still good at baseball.

Torii Hunter got one hit.  This raises his average to .205.  His OBP is .244 and his slugging average .315.  Thos number are not good and they are not moving in the right direction.  Now, we're still only a month into the season.  It's only seventy-three at-bats.  Clearly, the Twins are not going to make any hasty decisions about him and I'm not suggesting that they should.  Still, those are number from someone who has batted in the middle or top of the order all season.  He's not the only one in the lineup who's been struggling, of course.  But he is the only one in the lineup who's going to turn forty this year.  Again, he's going to get more time to turn this around, and he should.  But if he doesn't have a May that's significantly better than his April, the Twins may have to make a decision that they don't want to make.

It was announced last night that May will stay in the rotation, and Tommy Milone will be the odd man out when Ricky Nolasco returns.  I don't really like that, but I can understand it.  It was going to be between Pelfrey, May, and Milone, and Milone has done the worst of the three so far.  My hesitancy about it is that I think Milone has a better future than Pelfrey and I'm not convinced that Pelfrey's improvement is real.  However, I can certainly see why Molitor wants to give Pelfrey a chance to prove that it is, and I can't say that's a bad decision.  That leaves it between May and Milone, and of the two, May deserves to stay in the rotation more than Milone does.  I suspect, however, that either injury or ineffectiveness will result in Milone being back in the rotation at some point during the season.

So tonight we try to make it two in a row.  Kyle Gibson, who has alternated good and bad starts this season, needs to break the pattern and make it two good starts in a row.  He's facing Jose Quintana, who has alternated good and bad starts and needs to keep the pattern intact and have a bad start.  We've started that season-ending one hundred-forty-one game winning streak!  We're still on track for 150-12!