While the Twins were splitting with Detroit, Chicago was sweeping the Rangers, and so Minnesota's now ten games out of first place in the AL Central. Just to point out, Minnesota was also ten games back when they were 10-26. They may be 25-21 since, but they're treading water in the standings.
Keep an eye on the Twins bullpen, which has been hammered by a string of short starts. Scott Diamond's seven innings yesterday helped, but the 'pen's implosion in the eighth last night was likely a sign of things to come, if this weekend's starters can't pitch deep into games.
Over the last month, Ben Revere is batting .330 with 37 hits - one double, one triple, and 35 singles.
It probably won't come up, but Sam Deduno has two minor-league home runs in 64 plate appearances. That's three fewer than Revere, in 1691 fewer PA.
Rangers Notes
Though they were swept by the White Sox coming into this series, as mentioned, the Rangers still lead the AL West by four games, and own the American League's best record. It was the first time that Texas had been swept in a three- or four-game series this year.
Keep an eye on Roy Oswalt. In his last start against Chicago, he gave up eleven runs - nine of them earned - in four and a third innings. Given that Texas trailed 4-0 after one and 7-0 after two, it was more of a mercy-killing, let's-save-the-bullpen kind of outing. His final game score, keeping in mind that 50 is the cutoff for a quality start: 1. Ouch.
After starting wildly hot, Josh Hamilton has cooled off significantly. Since June 1, he's hitting just .226/.328/.443 with five home runs.
Yu Darvish won the fans' vote to make the All-Star roster, giving Texas an astonishing eight representatives on the AL team. Hamilton, Mike Napoli, and Adrian Beltre were voted in by the fans, while Ian Kinsler was voted in by the players; the other three - Elvis Andrus, Matt Harrison, and Joe Nathan - were all selected by Rangers manager Ron Washington.
Speaking of our guy Joe Nathan, he has 18 saves and a 1.87 ERA, and hasn't blown a save since mid-April. Good for him, really.
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