This, That, and the Other

The Minnesota Twins impressive winning streak came to a halt Saturday as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Twins by a score of 5-1. Livan Hernandez (L, 8-5) gave up 5 runs, 4 of them earned, in the first three innings of play. He managed to right the ship after the rough start, and finished with 5 K’s in seven innings of work, but the Twins offense never managed to come alive. The team finished with just three hits, and their only run came on a 2-out Jason Kubel homerun in the bottom of the ninth.

The team didn’t spend much time on the losing track though, as they bounced back yesterday for a 5-0 victory behind the masterful performance of pitcher Kevin Slowey (W, 5-6). Slowey pitched a complete game, gave up just 3 hits, and struck-out 8 for his first major league shut-out. The Twins dealt Ben Sheets (L, 9-2) his first road loss of the season. Sheets worked 7 innings, gave up 9 hits and 5 runs, all of them earned. Coming in to Sunday’s game with the Twins, Sheets was 6-0 on the road in 10 starts.The Twins 10-game winning streak began back on June 17th with a 3-game home sweep of the Washington Nationals followed by a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They had a quick 3 game road trip and swept the San Diego Padres before returning home to face the Brewers again. The Twins are 13-2 in their last 15 games, dating back to their series in Milwaukee. During that time the Twins beat pitchers Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy (Trevor Hoffman blown save), Greg Maddux, and Ben Sheets.

The Twins were the benefactors of a Cubs sweep over the White Sox last weekend, but they didn’t get any help from them this time around as the Sox swept the Cubs. This puts the Twins 1½ games out of first in the A.L. Central with 13 games to go before the All-Star Break.

The Twins closed out Interleague Play with a major league best 14-4 record against teams from the opposing league. The Twins will look to ride this success all the way to the All-Star break through what appears will be a tough stretch of games. The team opens a 3-game series at home tonight against the Detroit Tigers and they get 3 more against the Cleveland Indians before they hit the road to close out the first-half of the season. The schedule concludes with the Twins taking on the Red Sox for 3 games in Boston and another 4 against the Tigers in Detroit.

It’s tough to call any games in the first-half of the season must-win when you’re sitting just 1½ out in your division, but with the way the White Sox and Tigers are playing and the All-Star Break fast approaching, these next to weeks could be make-or-break for this young Twins squad.