A few extra thoughts heading into the weekend:

(*) Amid all this talk about the 13-man pitching staff, Juan Rincon’s demise, Nick Blackburn’s swollen lip, etc., the Twins are playing very well. Since that 19-3 drubbing at Detroit on May 24, they are 7-4, and the four losses were by a total of five runs.

Also, they committed just two errors on their seven-game homestand after committing 42 errors in their first 53 games.

(*) Alexi Casilla has been the biggest difference. The kid’s batting .343 and has an eight-game hitting streak. I think the key moving forward is Justin Morneau. Gardy has mentioned the back and leg soreness, and the big guy keeps playing every day, so it’s not easy getting healthy. He is 2-for-15 with two singles and no RBI in his past four games.

(*) With Nick Punto injured, Brendan Harris will take over at shortstop again. Harris has played 12 games at shortstop without an error. Maybe the range isn’t spectacular, but he’s handled the plays he should make and has a strong arm.

(*) Look for Matt Macri to get two starts at third base in the four-game Chicago series, as the White Sox will start LHP Mark Buehrle on Saturday and LHP John Danks on Monday. Mike Lamb is hitting .077 against lefties now.

(*) I know it was a good week for music in the Twin Cities. Death Cab at the Orpheum, R.E.M. at the X. I missed those but saw the best show I can remember Wednesday, when the Old 97’s played First Avenue. They played a 25-song set with two encores. As lame as this sounds, I hadn’t been to First Ave since 1996, for the Jayhawks. But this was the kind of night that will keep me coming back as often as the baseball schedule permits.

(*) This is a big 10-game road trip for the Twins. After Chicago, it’s on to Cleveland and then Milwaukee next weekend. The Brewers have won six straight and are 9-1 in their past 10 games. Besides his his prolific draft coverage, La Velle is our man in Chicago, and I’ll catch you again in Cleveland.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.