The Twins' 1-0 victory on Sunday over Cleveland put them within 4 1/2 games of the Indians for the AL Central lead and within 4 games of Wild Card leading Detroit. It's the closest they've found themselves to the lead since May and Sports Club Stats gives them an 11.4 14.6% chance of making the playoffs.

If the playoffs are going to happen, something needs to change with this offense. They can't count on the pitchers to throw shutouts every day. The fact that the Twins have picked up 5 games in less than two weeks has far more to do with the struggles of Cleveland and Detroit than it does with the play of the Twins.

Many will look at the Twins' recent jump in the standings as a reason to further criticize the recent moves of Terry Ryan. I personally don't feel the moves (Trading Luis Castillo and waiving Jeff Cirillo) made the Twins much worse. Castillo has always been a one dimensional player, however that dimension, speed, has dwindled away to almost nothing. The Cirillo move makes a little less sense, as he's been an adequate hitter against lefties, which is what the Twins signed him to do, but he's not a difference maker in the lineup.

The only place I can criticize Ryan is in his inability or unwillingness to bring in a real hitter. There's still time for him to make a move, and perhaps if the Twins can put together another win Monday and carry that into Kansas City, he'll do just that.

Alexi Casilla

The main reason I'm not upset about the Castillo trade is because the Twins have done the right thing and played Alexi Casilla at 2nd every day. Casilla is not much of a downgrade, if any, from Castillo. He's had a couple misplays in the field--mostly running into other fielders, but those are things that will go away with time and experience. His defensive range blows away Castillo's and I think his speed on the bases will make up for what will likely be a lower batting average and higher strikeout rate.

Scott Baker

Casilla drove in the only run with his 4th inning double, but Scott Baker was the guy that won this game. He held Cleveland to just 4 hits and 2 walks through eight shout-out innings.

Baker has gone 8, 8 and 7 innings in his past 3 starts and since June 20th he's 5-2 with a 3.13 ERA in 9 starts totalling 60 1/3 innings pitched. That nice ERA includes the 7 runs he allowed through five innings on July 6th when the Twins beat the White Sox 20-14. Baker has 4 times gone at least eight innings and has given the Twins' pitching staff a couple of its best starts of the season. Not bad for a guy that everyone was ready to give up on a couple months ago.

Game Notes

• Jason Kubel's season reminds me of the Twins' season as a whole. He'll have a good game or two, maybe hit a couple home runs than fall flat again. On Sunday he continued his dominance over Fausto Carmona by getting 2 singles in his first 2 at-bats before being walked in the next 2 plate appearances.
• Justin Morneau has found himself in a slump this home stand. He's 0-11 in the Cleveland series and just 3-23 since the home stand began on July 30th. In that time he has not driven in a run. The Twins pitching has been earning the victories lately, so it'd be nice if Justin can wake from his slumber in time to keep them in the win column for a while longer.
• Close games are good for closers and Joe Nathan has been taking advantage of the many opportunities he's been given since the All-Star break. He converted his 26th save on Sunday and is 9 for 9 in saves since the break.
• On the season, the Twins have been shut out by their opponents 9 times while they've shut out their opponents 5 times.

Lastly, does anyone know why ESPN's game logs for hitters go in descending order by date while game logs for pitchers go in ascending order by date?