The last two nights have been perfect indications that the playoff race is heating up. Two of the most exciting games of the season came back to back, and best of all, the Twins won both. The Twins jumped out to an early lead against Jose Contreras, scoring five runs in the first three innings and knocking Contreras out of the game after 2 2/3 innings. Santana wasn’t as dominate as he usually is, but he managed to get through 7 innings allowing just three runs (two earned) and it looked like everything was going well—the Twins were cruising to victory and the bullpen was going to get some rest. Then things got interesting.

Juan Rincon came on in the eighth with a 6-3 lead and gave up a solo homer to Paul Konerko and a single to Joe Crede. Dennys Reyes came in to face the lefty, Ross Gload, but couldn’t find the plate at all. Reyes walked two batters and worked the count on Alex Cintron to 2-0 before Ron Gardenhire decided that it was enough. The two pitches had wild pitch written all over them, but Joe Mauer made nice stops to prevent the runners from advancing. Pat Neshek came in to record the final two outs of the inning, including a A.J. Pierzynski strikeout. The Twins escaped the rough inning with a 6-5 lead.

In the top of the ninth Jason Tyner reached on a Juan Uribe error and then stole second. Bartlett failed to move him over on a bunt, but Luis Castillo came up with a single to put runners on the corners. Nick Punto hit a sac fly to give the Twins a huge insurance run. With Joe Nathan coming on for the ninth, the game appeared to be sealed. But that wasn’t the case. Jermaine Dye hit his 38th homerun of the year with Tadahito Iguchi on base to tie the game. The game went extra innings and the bullpen was wearing thin.

Willie Eyre was the only realistic option for the Twins and he came out and pitched a scoreless 10th inning. In the top of the 11th Lew Ford led off with a pinch-hit single. Jason Bartlett tried again with a bunt and succeeded, moving Ford into scoring position. Luis Castillo sacrificed Ford to third on a ground out. Finally, Nick Punto found a hole on the right side of the infeild to score Lew Ford. Willie Eyre held off the White Sox in the 11th to send the Twins to their fourth straight victory and to a 1 1/2 game lead in the wildcard.

Game Notes

• Juan Rincon allowed 2 ER in 1/3 IP. He has been struggling the whole month of August.
• Willie Eyre has a 1.76 ERA in 17 1/3 IP in August. He got his first major league win on Saturday night. It was without a doubt the biggest situation he’s found himself in.
• It was the young guys in the bullpen, Neshek and Eyre that came up big for the Twins.
• Luis Castillo made an outstanding play in the ninth inning on a hard hit Scott Podsednik ball. If Podsenik had reached base, Dye’s homer likely would have been of the 3-run variety and the Twins would’ve lost.
• Jason Tyner was 2-4 with 2 runs and 2 RBI
• Torii Hunter was 1-5 with a solo homerun. He has homered in 4 straight games and has 6 in the last 8 games.

Detroit is collapsing

All through the Twins historic tear in June and July they hardly gained any ground on the Tigers. Now in four days they’ve gained four games on the Tigers in the AL Central standing and are now just four games back. I think there’s still a strong chance that two playoff teams will come from the Central, but the Tigers might not be one of them. What do you think?