After taking three of four from Detroit this weekend, the Minnesota Twins find themselves leading by a game and a half in the wild card race, and trailing the Tigers by just two games for the AL Central lead. It's a shocking turn of events for a team that was double-digit games behind for much of the first half of the season, and was outscored 33-1 in a three-game series by the Tigers earlier this year.
And in even better news, the Twins get back Francisco Liriano this week, and may even have Brad Radke back by the end of the season, so he can close out his career by pitching the Twins into the playoffs. Most unbelievable of all may be that the Twins not only stayed in the race, but moved ahead while two of their pitchers were injured, having to start three rookies in their rotation for the last few weeks. And in another surprise, it looks as though Boof Bonser is actually turning into a legitimate major league starter.
Even though they're a rival of my Twins, I was sort of looking forward to seeing the Tigers make the playoffs this year. Their fans have suffered enough over the years and they deserve a playoff run. So if two teams from the Central can make it, I vote for the Twins and Tigers. Screw the White Sox.
And in other Minnesota sports news, the minor league St. Paul Saints got into a postgame barroom brawl with members of the rival Fort Worth Cats in St. Paul last night. You'd think that sort of thing would happen more often, wouldn't you?
Posted by Stephen Silver at September 11, 2006 04:14 PM