The Tigers are the only AL Central team above .500 right now and they had lost 10 consecutive road series before winning the first two at the Big A this week. That about sums up the division, eh?

John Lowe explains here how defense spurred Detroit to its 5-3 win over the Angels on Tuesday, helping give a shaky Jarrod Washburn his first win since the trade from Seattle.

Meanwhile, Joe Cowley describes this as a road trip that could define Chicago’s season (@ Bos, @ NYY, @ Min, makeup game @ Cubs), and there are plenty of angst-ridden quotes from Ozzie Guillen after his club slipped back to .500.

A key moment in Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Red Sox came in the eighth inning. Tie score, runners at first and third with no outs, and Jermaine Dye, A.J. Pierzynski and Alex Rios can’t bring home another run. Cue Ozzie:

That killed us. If you watched us all year long, we’re really bad with men on third base and less than two outs, maybe the worst team in baseball right now. If someone is worse than us, that’s a record.

That and Scott Linebrink’s latest meltdown prompted Guillen to suggest it’s not a good time for certain body parts to start tightening.  

The White Sox had hoped Jake Peavy could start Saturday at Yankee Stadium, but he took a comebacker off his pitching elbow Monday at Class AAA Charlotte. If Peavy is held back, he could still face the Twins next week at the Metrodome. As Cowley notes:

Mark Buehrle hasn’t won since his perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 23, Jose Contreras is now a reliever, and Freddy Garcia still is working through the kinks as he tries to return from shoulder problems.

Note: Check back here later for tonight’s starting lineups as the Twins’ try to extend their winning streak to six games.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 10:08 am and is filed under Around MLB, Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.