The series opener in Cleveland was a game dominated by offense and it clocked it at 3 hours and 43 minutes in length. The Twins scored 14 runs on 18 hits and 6 walks and were also helped out by a fourth inning Aaron Boone error that allowed the Twins to compile 8 runs in the one inning alone. The Twins picked a good night to put up some offense, because Carlos Silva wasn’t very good.

Silva struggled through 4 1/3 innings while he allowed an extraordinary 15 batters. As usual, the bullpen came in and shut things down. Home plate umpire Chris Guccione was accused of having a tight strikezone, but nonetheless, Carlos Silva pitched pretty bad. He’s a pitcher that’s known for throwing it in the zone anyway, so blaming the umpire would be a poor excuse. The Twins need to start looking at another option in place of Silva. He put together a couple adequate starts, but hasn’t really looked right all year long.

Game Notes

• Jason Bartlett was the only batter not to get a hit, but he did walk once and picked up 2 RBI.
• Joe Mauer hit a single, double and triple in the game to push his average back above .380 to .381 for the first time since before the All-Star break. Mauer’s average hasn’t dipped below .370 since June 8th. That’s a pretty consistent run.
• Rondell White picked up 4 hits and barely missed his 4th homerun of the season, instead getting a double. He also had 4 RBI and he’s suddenly hitting .221.
• Micheal Cuddyer had 4 RBI.
• Pat Neshek continues to make hitters look silly. He pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings and allowed 1 walk. In 5 1/3 innings Neshek has given up just 1 hit, 1 walk and no runs. He has struck out 7.
• Dennys Reyes, for some reason, was given the win although he pitched only 2/3 innings. Jesse Crain, who pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief should’ve been credited with the W, in my opinion.

Getting closer

The Twins currently have an 8 game winning streak going. In the months of June and July the Twins have two 8 game streaks and one 11 game win streak. Both the White Sox and Yankees lost again on Friday night which means the Twins are within 3 games of the wildcard leading White Sox and just 1/2 game behind the Yankees.