This season has been a tease.  Every time you think the Twins are out of it, they seem to stave off certain doom.  Then when you think they can jump back into the middle of the race, the Twins get knocked back.  They lose 2 of 3 to Seattle, then they sweep a 4-game series in Baltimore.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Well, today we are on the "forth" part of that swing.  We are 5 1/2 games back in the AL Central with 5 weeks to play in the season.  Hope is still there, faint as ever.

Over the next week and a half, the Twins play their final 6 games of the season against the Indians.  3 in Cleveland, and then after a 4-game series hosting the Roayls, 3 against the Tribe at the Metrodome.  If the Twins play good baseball over the next 10 days, they will be right in the middle of a 3-way race for the AL Central crown.  If they tank, their chances at the postseason will evaporate.  It seems ridicules that after all the offensive woes that the Twins have gone through, they can still be a factor in September.

The good news for Twins fans is that Johan Santana is slated to make starts in both series.  The bad news is that C.C. Sabathia will do the same thing.  It's pretty obvious that the Twins need to win at least 4 of these 6 games.  We have to make up ground right now.  If the Twins can also pick up a half game while playing the Roayls over the weekend, that would put them 3 games back with 3 1/2 weeks to play.

It should also be noted that exactly half of the games left on the Twins' schedule are against teams that are currently 14 games below .500 or worse.  The Twins have 7 games left against the Royals, 6 vs the White Sox, and 3 against Texas.  So when the Twins aren't playing the Indians and Tigers, almost all the rest of their games this season are against the league's bottom-dwellers.  The exception is the final 4-game series of the regular season in Boston.  Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that the Twins still control their own destiny for the most part.

So now, after washing my hands of my favorite team when they dropped the first 2 at home against Seattle, I am again going to emotionally invest myself in the outcome of each game.  For now.  Why?  Am I a glutton for punishment and disappointment?  Maybe.  -But I think it's more like the girl that you're crazy about who hurts you.  At first you're extremely upset, you vow to never take her back, and you set it in your mind that you don't need her.  However, in the end it doesn't matter.  You will always give it another chance.