There were a lot of hits in Sunday’s series finale in Kansas City. The Twins totaled 22 hits in the game, but no one had more than Jason Bartlett’s 5. In the past week, since July 31st, Bartlett has had 5 multi-hit games and he’s seen his average rise to .377. He of course, has only about half the plate appearances required to qualify as a league leader, but he’s no doubt been extremely valuable at the bottom of the order. On Sunday he drove in the Twins first run of the game with a bloop single just past Royal first baseman Ryan Shealy.

The debut of Mike Smith was a short one. He struggled mightily with his control through three innings and Matt Guerrier came on in the fourth after Smith had allowed 4 runs on 5 hits, 3 walks and a hit batter. Smith clearly isn’t the answer for the Twins fifth spot in the rotation and I don’t think anyone seriously thought he would be. Had the Twins been playing anyone but the Royals, Smith and the Twins likely would’ve taken the loss. Instead they managed to sweep the pathetic Royals in a four game series. The win extended their road win streak to 8 games, the team’s best since 1965.

The win also moved the Twins into a tie with the Boston Red Sox in second place in the wildcard. Both teams are just 1/2 game behind the White Sox. Some big matchups will take place over the next week. The Twins will head to Detroit where they’re 0-6 this year. They’ll again send their best three pitchers (Liriano, Radke and Santana) out against the Tigers. The White Sox will have a makeup game on Monday against the Angels and then host the Yankees for three games. The Red Sox will have a good opportunity to gain ground on someone; they play three games against the Royals beginning on Tuesday.

Game Notes

• Matt Guerrier came just short of missing his first career win. The Twins took the lead in the fifth before Guerrier gave up a leadoff hit in the sixth. Dennys Reyes allowed the inherited runner to score and later got the win himself when the Twins came back with a run in the seventh.
• Luis Castillo has also been on fire at the plate lately. He had 10 hits in the KC series.
• Redmond, Cuddyer and Hunter each had 3 hits as well. Jason Tyner had 4 hits.
• Cuddyer hit his 16th homer of the season in the fifth inning to put the Twins in the lead 5-4.

Liriano returning Monday night

Liriano felt good in his bullpen session on Friday night, so he will return to the rotation on Monday night against Zach Miner and the Tigers. In their July 28th matchup Liriano pitched magnificently after allowing 2 runs in the first inning. The Twins ended up losing the game 3-2 and lost the series 2 games to 1.