Bartlett didn’t only impress at the plate with his first homer of the season, but he also continued to look great in the field. Bartlett’s seventh inning homerun ended the 1-1 tie that had remained since Kubel hit a homerun in the 2nd. With Santana cruising and the strong bullpen of the Twins the game seemed to be a lock.

The White Sox had other ideas as they got to Santana in the bottom of the 7th when Joe Crede hit a 2-run blast to bring the game within 1. Santana struggled his way out of the 7th as his pitch count went over 100. Juan Rincon pitched a 1-2-3 eight inning to set up one of Joe Nathan’s toughest save opportunities of the year.

Nathan came on in the ninth to face a powerful part of the White Sox lineup—Konerko, Dye and Crede. Dye walked and Crede singled. Michael Cuddyer then made a diving catch in right on an A.J. Pierzynski liner for the second out and more importantly to prevent the tying run from scoring from second. On a full count Nathan got Alex Cintron to ground out for the final out of the game.

Game Notes

• Jason Tyner reached base all four time he came to the plate. He has 2 hits, a walk and reached on an error.
• Jason Bartlett is 5-8 in the series with 2 runs and 3 RBI. He’s batting a healthy .322 on the season in 118 at bats.
• Santana picked up his 12th win of the year. He moved into a 6-way tie, along with Liriano, for second place in wins.
• Joe Nathan got his 20th save of the year.

Lots of season left

It’s unbelievable that the Twins are just 1 game out of a playoff spot after the horrible start they had to the season. They played about as bad as a team could play for two months. Now they’ve played about as well as a team can play for almost two months. To give you an idea of how much things could change by season’s end(positively or negatively), there are just over two months of regular season remaining.