#-1: Twins (Last Week: -1). You know, for The Worst Team In Baseball, they actually had a really good week -- 5-2, taking series wins against both Texas and Oakland (both at home) before winning in Dallas (oh, dammit, that's where the ambush of those police officers happened ... my fucking God, this shit has to STOP!!!) last (Thursday) night, 10-1.
While the bats came alive this screening week (they racked up 17 runs against the Rangers Saturday and 11 against the A's Tuesday), what I think was the hallmark of the club's good fortune this week was stable, confidence-boosting pitching. Tyler Duffey struck out nine Rangers last (Thursday) night over six innings a day after Ervin Santana struck out eight batters and pitched a complete-game two-hit shutout -- the first complete-game shutout for the Twins since Andrew Albers (who?!) did it in August of 2013 -- to stifle the Athletics. When things you depend on but have no control over finally take care of themselves, the stress gets lifted off of your shoulders, and that is what has happened this past week.
By the way, congratulations go out to Eduardo Nuñez for being selected to the All-Star Game and acting as the squad's sole (at least for now; Brian Dozier might be tapped to replace someone after what I think will be a wave of bow-outs due to "nagging injury") representative. I've said it before and I'll say it again: So what if every team has to have someone in the ASG? If players get swapped out of the lineup after just one fucking at-bat and half a dozen new people get into the game every half-inning, I don't think there's a whole lot of integrity that's being upheld in the game, even if home-field advantage in the World Series is at stake. So why not let every team have someone in there?
That All-Star Game is on Tuesday, after the Twins finish their road series against Texas this weekend.
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