The Twins’ surge, winning five of their last six games, has moved them up in the Central Division standings. They are one half game behind second place Chicago and 4.5 games back of first place Detroit.
The remaining 2009 schedule, starting tonight at home against Texas, has the Twins playing 18 games in Minneapolis and 17 on the road. The Twins are seven games over .500 at home so far and eight games under on the road.
The teams remaining on the schedule, in addition to Texas, are Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City, all home and away, plus Oakland at home and on the road at Toronto. Only two of those teams, the Rangers and Tigers, are playing over .500 baseball. Cleveland, Kansas City, Oakland and Toronto are a combined 66 games under .500.
All of this reminds us of a sports truism: it’s not just how good your team is, it’s also about the ability of the opposition and how that team is playing right now. The Twins won five of their last six against two of the worst teams in the American League, Kansas City and Baltimore.
While Texas is 71-55, Chicago and Detroit also have challenging weekend assignments. The White Sox are at New York (79-48) and Detroit is home against Tampa Bay (69-57). The Tigers have to play Tampa Bay again in September while the White Sox’s schedule includes Los Angeles (75-51).
To their credit, the Twins have been receiving improved performances from players like outfielder Delmon Young, second baseman Alexi Casilla and pitcher Scott Baker during their surge. Those are contributions that haven’t always been there this season when the Twins wanted to roll with a win streak like the five gamer that ended with a loss to Baltimore Wednesday night.
More contributors, assisting the team’s core players, have enabled this group to not only win more as of late, but sometimes rally in games when needed. That says something about the team’s leadership which includes manager Ron Gardenhire, pitching coach Rick Anderson, relief pitcher Joe Nathan, catcher Joe Mauer, first baseman Justin Morneau and outfielder Michael Cuddyer. There’s no panic or give up in their DNA.
The Twins have winning records against division rivals Chicago (7-5) and Detroit (7-4). Also, in their last 10 games neither the White Sox (4-6) nor Tigers (5-5) have been delighting observers with their performances.
If there was no divisional play in the American League, the Twins would be 16 games behind league-leading New York in the loss column and watching from far behind as the season moves toward an early October close. Whoever created the idea of splitting the league into three divisions and creating more competition is smiling today. Twins fans can be happy knowing the team is playing better and facing mediocre opposition between now and season’s end.