The Twins continued their winning ways by taking 5 of 6 games in interleague play last week. Impressively, they beat pitchers Roy Oswalt, Roger Clemens and Mark Prior. The Twins outscored their opponents 31-15 as their pitching was solid and they continued to get timely hitting. The only bad thing to say about week 12 was that the two teams in front of the Twins—the Tigers and White Sox—did just as well as the Twins.

Honorable Mention

• Jason Bartlett: Jason Bartlett was extremely valuable in what had been an unproductive ninth spot in the batting order. Bartlett had an on-base percentage of .458 and hit 3 doubles during the week. He also played well in the field.
• Jason Kubel: Kubel didn’t hit any homers last week, but he did bat .412 with two doubles.
• Francisco Liriano: Liriano outpitched one of the greatest of all-time, Roger Clemens, Thursday in Houston for his 7th win of the season. Liriano allowed just 2 hits in the first 7 innings before allowing a single and a homerun in the 8th.
• Johan Santana: Santana gave up just 1 run in 8 innings against the Cubs on Friday night. He “only” struck out 6 and he claimed he didn’t have his best stuff, but nobody in Minnesota was complaining. He improved his record to 8-4 with the win.
• Joe Nathan: Joe blew his first save of the season on Tuesday in Houston. Morneau reclaimed the lead with a homerun in the 10th and Nathan came back in the bottom of the inning to strike out the side and pick up the win. Joe still managed to pick up 2 saves last week to increase his season total to 12.

Player of the Week: Justin Morneau

Morneau continued to be a dominate force in the Twins lineup in week 12. He hit 3 homerun and drove in 6 RBI to improve his season totals to 19 and 62, respectively. He of course had the game winning homerun in the 10th on Tuesday. He also provided 3 of the Twins’ 7 runs Friday night against the Cubs. In total, Morneau was 10-23 for a .435 batting average. After struggling early in the season Morneau has become a consistent force in the lineup and now finds himself among the AL leaders in homers and RBI. The most encouraging sign is that he’s hitting better against lefties, which shows that his improvement is a result of hard work and discipline rather than just a random hot streak.