Viva Glen Perkins!

On the back of Glen Perkins' best start of the season, the Twins blanked the Yankees on Monday night for the first time at the Dome since 1996.  It was a fantastic night for Glen, who undoubtedly was pitching with a little something extra less than 24 hours removed from the birth of his second baby girl.  As great of a night as it was for Perk, it was a good night for the home team as well, moving back into first place in what's becoming a see-saw battle with the Chicago White Sox.

In the bottom of the second inning, Adam Everett got ahold of a Sidney Ponson fastball and make superior contact, using good mechanics more than strength to push the ball over the fence for a two-run homer.  It was Everett's second home run of the season, and he's now 6-for-14 (with three walks) in his last five games, raising his season OPS by .100 in that span.  While the Twins would give Perkins two more runs of support, Everett's pair was all he needed.

Perkins was efficient, throwing 70 of his 107 pitches for strikes.  His defense picked him up with a couple of double plays, Perk helped his own cause with four strikeouts, and he held the Yankees to four singles through eight innings.  It wasn't a dominating performance, but it was a great one nonetheless.

Denard Span scored the third and fourth runs for the Twins, the third on a Joe Mauer sac fly to left field.  The fourth run came in the bottom of the eighth inning, and was a far more impressive play.  With two outs and a full count to Justin Morneau, Span (on second base, with Mauer on first) took off on the pitch and was halfway to third by the time Ponson's pitch left his hand.  Morneau's grounder chopped to the first base side of second base, mildly deflected by Ponson's glove.  Derek Jeter cut off Robinson Cano, fielded the ball...and from nowhere Span slid in for a run.  Jeter had no play at first, and no play at the plate.  It was a fantastic understanding of the situation by Span, and a heads-up decision by both Span and Scott Ullger to to keep the play going.  I know I'm blowing it way out of proportion, but the more I see Span the more impressed I'm impressed.  He's transformed the leadoff role for the Twins and has been one of the many catalysts for their bid for the division crown.

After eight innings Perkins sat down, and Joe Nathan blew away the competition, striking out Bobby Abreu, Alex Rodriguez and Xavier Nady to end the game.  Just another day at the office.

With the Red Sox downing the South Siders 5-1, the Twins once again are in first place, and at their current pace will finish the season with 90 wins.  For this to happen Minnesota will need to go 24-19 the rest of the way--definitely an achieveable mark, even considering their road trip at the end of the month.  Suffice it to say, with Chicago hot on our tails I wouldn't complain about a 26-17 record the remainder of the season, either.  Regardless, it still looks like any team in the Central that gets to 90 wins will take the division title.

Great win for the Twins last night, here's hoping they can repeat the result again tonight!  I wasn't around for most of the game thread last night, but thanks to those who were.  Alexi Casilla All-Star took on all comers and comes out as last night's head honcho!

Stars of the Game

#3  Denard Span  (1-for-4, 2 R, 2B, SB)
#2  Adam Everett  (1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI, R)
#1  Glen Perkins  (8 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 3 BB, 4 K)

It's a good thing I'm not terribly supersticious, I'd never see another full Twins game this year.

I wouldn't call it ironic, because kicking the living crap out of the Ranger bullpen isn't unheard of or even unexpected, but the Twins didn't get to Sidney Ponson as early as I thought they would.  Ponson went five and a third, allowing five runs (just one earned), but he'd been surprisingly effective through five innings.  In the sixth, holding a 5-2 lead, things came unravelled.

Once he was staked to his lead, Ponson changed tactics and began to go after Twins hitters, not being afraid to throw over the plate instead of trying to get them to bite on fastballs dancing on the outside of the zone.  In the sixth inning this tactic began to backfire, and in the end forced Texas to put the fate of their game into their suspect relief corps.

Brendan Harris led off the Minnesota sixth, and again it looked like Ponson was approaching Twins hitters aggressively.  Three of his four pitches were right over the heart of the plate, and on a 2-1 count, Harris took Ponson's offering to center field for a double.

Still in control, Ponson attacked Mauer will three consecutive fastballs.  Joe took the first two for balls before taking his third pitch back to the pitcher.  Ponson threw the ball away, Harris scored, and when the dust settled Joe Mauer was standing on second base.  5-3 Rangers, but Ponson was shaken.

After Justin Morneau grounded out to first base, Michael Cuddyer reached base when Texas third baseman Ramon Vasquez was unable to come up clean on the ground ball.  With only one out and runners on first and second, it was Jason Kubel who chased Ponson.  His hard-hit liner to right scored Mauer from third.

Jamie Wright came on in relief, and quickly walked Delmon Young on five pitches.  The bases were loaded for Mike Lamb, who's had one of the roughest starts of any Twin so far this spring.  Lamb came through with a sacrifice fly, and the game was tied as Cuddyer crossed home plate.  It was the best inning I've been able to watch so far this year, and was an awesome way to wake up this morning, not gonna lie.

Another three-run inning in the seventh gave the Twins a healthy lead late, but it was Michael Cuddyer's three-run homer in the top of the eighth that put the nail in the proverbial coffin.  Following a 10-pitch plate appearance for Morneau, Cuddyer took Scott Feldman's first pitch and deposited it over the left field fence.  It capped 10 unanswered runs by the Minnesota offense.

Craig Monroe's start in center field didn't cost the Twins any runs in the end, and likely helped the offense in the absence of Carlos Gomez.  He went 2-for-5 with an RBI double, giving the Twins their first lead at 1-0.  I wouldn't want to pull that job more than a handful of times all season, but if it has to happen on a limited occasion, well...it's not going to alter the fortunes of the team one way or the other.

That was a great win for the Twins.  Let's shoot for a series victory this afternoon!