The Twins trailed Thursday night's series opener against Detroit right from the start. Scott Baker gave up a homerun to the first batter he faced, Curtis Granderson. The Tiger lead only grew as the game went on the the Twins eventually lost by a score of 7-2. The Tigers only outhit the Twins by 2 and if you add the Twins +2 walk differential, then the two teams had an equal number reach base. Two key things made the difference in the game: The Tigers hit 4 homeruns and turned 3 double plays while the Twins hit just 1 solo homerun and turned no double plays.

Scoring is never as easy when you have to "manufacture" runs. I don't quite understand why one of the more powerful hitters on the team, Phil Nevin, is mostly riding the bench while both Rondell White and Jason Tyner play. More than anything, I don't understand why Tyner is the DH and White is in LF.

There were many rumblings about how Scott Baker was helped immensely by the hurrican winds blowing in at Yankee Stadium last weekend. Thursday night, with no wind Baker allowed two homeruns. Matt Guerrier pitched four innings to complete the game which allows for a pretty fresh bullpen going into the weekend.

Game Notes

• Luis Castillo was 2-4. He currently has a five game hit streak with two hits in three of those games.
• Michael Cuddyer was 2-4 with his 21st HR and 93rd RBI of the season.
• Nick Punto batted just .274/.345/.358 in August and has a batting average of just .087 in September. That's not the type of production you want in the #2 spot in the lineup.

Chicago beat up by Cleveland

The Twins slipped to five games behind the Tigers, but didn't lose their lead to Chicago. Cleveland took down the White Sox by a score of 9-1 with Mark Buehrle getting beat through four innings.