Sweep

The Tigers came to town nipping at their heels, but the Twins finished off a 3-game sweep yesterday to move out to a 3.5 game lead in the AL Central. Scott Baker started it with a seven inning quality start on Monday and Nick Blackburn followed with a complete game where he allowed 3 runs and took only 95 pitches to go the distance. Kevin Slowey inched closer to a quality start yesterday, but missed by a hair in only going 5.2. Pavano and Liriano are both pitching strong right now, so the rotation seems to be slowly planing up as a group.

Meanwhile, the Twins offense keeps chugging along and the defense came up with the big plays to back the pitchers up. I thought this little tidbit was interesting:

After taking a 2-0 lead, the Twins (19-9) became the first major league team to score at least two runs in the first inning of six straight games since the 1971 New York Yankees did so seven consecutive times. The Twins have outscored their opponents 28-13 in the first inning this year.

I knew they had been jumping on the opposing pitchers, but I didn't realize it had been six games straight. Credit Denard Span and Orlando Hudson, the 1-2 guys in the lineup, for getting that started. Then you get the likes of Mauer, Morneau, Thome, Cuddyer, and Kubel following. I've been a little frustrated at times about the number of runners left on base, but part of that is just a function of how often they are getting the runners on in the first place.

Baltimore is in town for four now and then after a rest day the White Sox come in for two. After that, it's seven games in seven days against the AL East. Make hay now boys, that's a big challenge on the horizon.