The Twins came close to sweeping the Tigers this week. It would have happened had the Twins not coughed up a 4-1 lead after the sixth inning in Monday’s 5-4 loss.

After that disappointing game, the Twins bounced back to win their sixth consecutive series. “That says something about this team,” Nick Punto said.

I agree. Sitting here on the off day, I’m thinking about the bigger meaning of all this. The Tigers hadn’t lost a series in a month, but they were without Twin-killer Magglio Ordonez and basically without Miguel Cabrera for the final two games.

The Twins didn’t have Michael Cuddyer, but the Tigers were a shadow of their former selves Wednesday, without Ordonez, Cabrera and Pudge Rodriguez. The Twins also missed Justin Verlander and Kenny Rogers, two of Detroit’s hottest pitchers.

I’m not trying to downplay anything. In fact, think of where the Tigers would be if they hadn’t pinned three losses on the Twins with eighth-inning comebacks this season. I believe the Twins are something like 36-3 when leading after seven innings, and the Tigers are responsible for all three of those losses.

If the Twins keep the lead through the eighth inning in those games, they turn things over to Joe Nathan, who has a 1.67 career ERA against the Tigers. The Twins could be 50-35, leading the White Sox by a half-game and leading the Tigers by 10 1/2.

Anyway, the Twins are 7-4 against the Tigers this year, and they’ll play their final four games at Detroit in a series beginning one week from today.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 10:39 am 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.