The Regular Season Last Two Weeks

After a nice win on Saturday which saw Danny Valencia hit his forth HR of the season and 2nd in two days and a nice outing by Kevin Slowey, the Twins pushed to a 10 game lead on the White Sox with a magic number of 5 with 14 left to play.  If it wasn't time to consider this division won before it definitely is now and its time to look closely at the race for the best record.  With the Rays and Yankee's both winning today, the Twins remain a half game behind the Ray's and a full game behind the Yankee's.  Tampa Bay has one extra game to play (15) than the Twins & Yankee's (14). 

• Yankee's upcoming opponents winning percentage .522    7 home - 7 away
• Twin's upcoming opponents winning percentage .466    8 home - 6 away
• Ray's upcoming opponents winning percentage .455    7 home - 8 away

The Ray's and Yankee's start their final head to head series in New York on Monday.  The Yankee's definitely have the toughest schedule over the final two weeks including the four games with the Ray's and home and home three game sets with the Red Sox.  The Rays definitely have the easiest road with two three game series at home with two last place teams (Orioles & Mariners) and a four game set on the road with the last place Royal's to close out the season.  With 10 of the final 15 games for the Ray's against last place teams, I think we need to hope the Yankee's win at least three games next week in New York and then their hated rival Red Sox can take care of business in those six games.  Both the Twins and Yankee's play the Toronto Blue Jays yet as well.  The Jay's while playing just over .500 baseball can be a dangerous HR hitting team.  The Yankee's play the Jay's in Toronto while the Twins get them for the final four games of the season at Target Field.

The Twins are currently 6 games up on Texas so most likely, whether the Twins have the best record or not, they will probably be starting the playoffs at home against the wild card team.  Who do we prefer to play first?  I would vote for the Ray's but their ability to run scares me - - especially against Carl Pavano, who has proven incapable of holding runners on.  My preferred starting rotation for the playoffs right now would be Liriano - Pavano - Duensing - Blackburn (if needed).  All of them should have a short leash especially with Slowey and Baker available for long relief.  A couple positives over the past few days has been Fuentes strong return from his back issues and also the fact that Capps has been able to shut things down late without quite so many dramatics.  Let's hope that can continue.  The biggest bullpen disappointment recently has been Matt Guerrier.  Gardy has used him 8 times in September already and we've seen in the past how he gets worn down.  With the number of arms they have out there right now, its my belief he should not be used two consecutive days through the end of the season and hopefully he can turn things around.

Hopefully they can close out the Oakland series tomorrow for their 90th win and keep the pressure on for that best record in baseball.

Missed opportunity

The Twins missed an opportunity to keep pace with the Yankee's for the quest for the best record in baseball tonight with a 3-1 loss to the Oakland A's.  With tonight's Yankee win over the O's and the Ray's loss to the Angel's, the Twins remain in third position one game off the Yankee's pace.

The Twins went with a bit of an altered line up with Denard Span & Jason Kubel both a little dinged up following the big series in Chicago, it gave Ben Revere his first starting experience.  Honestly I was hoping to see a bit more from the youngster.  We've all heard that he doesn't have the greatest arm but I was hoping with his great speed he might get to some balls that instead dropped in front of him.  Revere also didn't exactly knock the cover off the ball either with three ground outs to the pitcher and a late inning walk but the rest of the line up didn't fair much better either managing only 4 hits off A's lefty starter Brett Anderson.  Danny Valencia was the Twins only real threat going 2 for 3 with a BB and his 3rd HR.

Hopefully the Twins can come back Saturday and get back to their winning way to stay in the hunt for that best record and the all important home field for the play-offs.  Kevin Slowey will be going for win number 13 against Dallas Braden, another lefty and he of the Mother's Day perfect game fame.