Here’s how I know things are more interesting:

Did an errand before the game last night and listened to the White Sox-Red Sox game on the radio.

Watched an entire Twins game for the first time in more than week. Travel and family would have kept me away from some of the games, but me ‘n’ Young220 gave up after two innings of the first Twins-Texas debacle last week while we were in Oklahoma and me ‘n’ Ms. Baseball opted for the late show of District 9 on Saturday night.

Fell asleep listening to the Tigers-Angels game.

Yes, I’m totally aware that the Twins are still under .500 and have put together their latest run against the two worst teams in baseball not named the Washington Nationals. But they will spend almost all of their remaining games playing the weak or their immediate rivals, so I’m not going to get hung up on details right now.

And, yes, it is tentative excitement. The Twins are starting an untested rookie tonight (Armando Gabino, whose place in Twins universe was such that he wore No. 83 during spring training) and the recently distressing Nick Blackburn tomorrow. And then there will be a weekend challenge from Texas, which is motivated by a wild-card race that is beyond the Twins’ reach.

But enough things are looking good right now that I’m willing to buy in for more than the individual achievements of Mauer, Morneau and some of the others. That Scott Baker is 10-1 since June 1 with an ERA around 3.50 is a heartening thing, all the more because he’s been known more for his outrageously high pitch counts than those victories. And he needed only 95 pitches to get through seven innings last night. And Jose Mijares is on a 12 1/3 inning scoreless streak and no longer incites nerves when he faces a right-handed batter. And Alexi Casilla seems to have won the second base job with a short burst of solid two-way play. And Michael Cuddyer continues to make his detractors look like they have an agenda (Bias against magicians, perhaps?) instead of valid points.

And Joe Mauer is Joe Mauer. More on that some other time.

For now, being a Twins fan is better than, say, being a Mets fan — especially when you consider the plight of a certain left-handed pitcher, who is having an MRI today and is may well be done for the season. (Just like his team.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 6:38 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.