The Twins enter the series at Cleveland with a 7-9 record, which puts them just 1.5 games behind Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City for the division lead. Cleveland is just a game behind the Twins. The Twins are fortunate to have the record they have, considering they've played much worse than that in terms of runs scored (66) vs. runs allowed (97).

The pitching matchups for the weekend:

Friday: Nick Blackburn, RHP (0-1, 5.71) vs. __Fausto Carmona, RPH (1-2, 7.88) Saturday: Kevin Slowey, RHP (2-0, 5.89) vs. Carl Pavano, RHP (0-2, 9.69) Sunday: Glen Perkins, LHP (1-1, 1.50) vs. Aaron Laffey, LHP (1-0, 2.19)

Those are some ugly stats for Friday and Saturday night, especially on the Indians side. Carmona hasn't been able to find his way since a stellar 2007 season. Pavano is still enjoying the fruits of his 2004 season, but that has to be coming to an end soon. Slowey is coming off his best start of the season, and hopes to keep that going after a rough first two starts.

Perkins will try to continue his magic of keeping the ball in the strike zone and inside the ballpark. He has allowed just 4 walks and no home runs in 24 innings this year. His strikeout rate is almost exactly on par with his 2008 season, so his success has to be almost entirely attributed to the lack of home runs allowed. Unfortunately, I don't see how that's sustainable while simultaneously allowing batters to put the ball in play.

Mauer due back in a week

Joe Mauer is scheduled to begin a 6-game rehab assignment with the Ft. Myers Miracle today. Assuming all goes well, he'll be in a Twins' uniform in exactly 1 week on May 1st.