IndianaTwin

With how this season has gone, it's hard to get too excited about beating the Orioles, but I suppose I can go with this...

Imaginary baseball games while throwing the tennis ball against the side of the house. (You wouldn't believe how many walk-off grand slams Tony Oliva had in his career.)

I get it — there’s plenty of reason to be down on the Twins, but I’m too committed to optimism in my life. I was at Wrigley yesterday and it was miserable. I was sitting, not running around. And it was worse today, so in this kind of conditions, I’m not going to get down on anyone too much. By contrast, it was good to see sparks from the offense in the past two days. Scoring 15 runs off the second-best pitching staff in the NL offers some hope, particularly when you consider that the Eds were only 4-14, with two extra-base hits, and only had 3 of the 15 RBIs. A total of 21 hits in two days, when that’s seemed like a week’s worth most of the season. Battling back to tie or take the lead twice today and managing to get a few RISPy hits as well the past two games. Still not where it needs to be, but a few signs of life.

Morrison, Astudillo, and Grossman. More than just rain drops.

Almora came out with cramps, which could well be the heat.

Only driving from northern Indiana with my son, but we'll be the noise from Section 525.* ** *My noise -- he grew up here, so he's a Cubs fan. **But my noise will probably be groaning at the BA ineptitude.

Go with the tofu -- it tastes like chicken.

And some of you thought that control problems would keep Hector Santiago from ever helping the Twins win games.

CRUSHED IT! Well, close enough.

Begrudgingly, I'll agree with you. Another way to think of it -- I don't know whether that call is reviewable, but if it is, it clearly would have been overturned after looking at the replay. In this case, they saved a minute or so by correcting it on the field.

Triple Double E!

Per the radio guys, Mauer has exactly 116 hits in each of Comerica, Progressive, and whatever they are calling the chunk of concrete in Chicago these days (editorial comment mine). (Correction — Kauffman, not the unmentionable. Only 107 in cementville, but they are there in 9 days.)

Fun fact: The 13 guys currently on the staff have a combined 3.66 ERA. Fun fact No. 2: Through 67 games, the entire team is on pace to allow 711 runs. The average over the previous seven years was 797. Fun fact No. 3: In the playoff run from 2002-2010, they averaged 715. With some guy named Johan helping out. (And this year is without the guy who was supposed to be the No. 1.)

I’ll see your Gibson and your Berrios and raise you a Lance Lynn. He’s given up 8 runs in his last 32.1 innings over 5 starts. That’s a 2.24 ERA and an average of 6.46 innings per start. You can say SSS and point to his April. I say look at his career and April is the SSS outlier. But hey, let’s not quibble over Berrios vs. Gibson vs. Lynn. Let’s just enjoy it and keep the bats rolling.

An SUV with “Tupperware” painted on the side just drove by our house. When they close the windows, do you think they have to burp it?

Dear Eddie, Joe's still a little sluggish from the whole concussion thing. Please hit it a long way so that he can jog. Respectfully, IT

I get the love for Magill -- I've been impressed too, but I think that going to Hildenberger and Rogers was the right move. Think of the bullpen in tiers and roles: Rodney is the closer, and the hope was not to use him.Reed and Pressley are the guys he's had confidence in in tight games, but we're all complaining that they are overused, and it was a five-run lead. It was right not to use them.Duke is the Loogy and threw 13 pitches on Tuesday and 15 on Thursday. It was right not to use him.That leaves Hildenberger, Pressley, Magill, and Belisle. Magill has been impressive, and threw 3.1 and 3 innings in his last two outings. It would have been easy to give him two innings. Last Tuesday, he threw 3 innings and kept the team in the game -- you need a guy who can go multiple innings when a starter gets blown out early, and it appears that there is reason to have confidence in him in this role. Molitor also has his least-experienced pitcher starting today and "5-inning Odorizzi" tomorrow, so it's not a bad thing to have the multiple-inning guy fresh. By contrast, Hildenberger and Rogers are both primarily one-inning guys. Since April 30, Hildy had thrown 22.2 innings with a 1.19 ERA and a 0.79 WHIP. In the same time period, Rogers had thrown 15 innings with a 1.80 ERA and a 0.87 WHIP. Both were also well-rested. Hildy had thrown twice in the last eight days, including only 23 pitches since last Saturday. Rogers had thrown once in the last eight days, 10 pitches on Sunday. So to me, it was better to give Hildy and Rogers an inning each and continue building them into guys that he can go to in higher-leverage situations in the 7th and 8th. With their history, they are probably the next options to use in the Reed/Pressley roles. Hildy pitched fine and Rogers just happened to have his first clunker in more than a month. It happens. And by going just one inning each, Hildy and Rogers are both are likely still available for today or tomorrow. Plus Magill is still ready for a longer outing today or tomorrow if needed -- had he gone two innings, he probably wouldn't be available today and probably not tomorrow.

And enough darkness for fireworks!

Pizza guy just showed up with the chicken bacon ranch. Took a little longer than it should have, so it was FRE.

Radio guys are worried it won't be dark enough for the fireworks.

Looks like we're going to have to save the 10-run outburst for tomorrow against Corsca. He's no good either -- right, Chief?

Something I like about his relative inexperience is that he could easily have more improvement left in him than the guys who've been playing 11 months per year.

Sounds like your Lucky Charms have passed the "Best if eaten by" date.

Just for kicks, let's go ahead and score 10, just to show that it can be done.