Sunday’s game was a tough one to watch. I can’t remember a time in recent history when Johan appeared to be laboring so much for an entire outing. He gave up 9 hits and 4 walks in 5 1/3 innings, but amazingly still only gave up 3 runs. The month of July has not been a good one for Johan, by his standards anyway. He has a 3-1 record, but it’s his 4.74 ERA that’s unusual. I’m not worried though.

Through most of the game it didn’t seem to even matter that what Johan would’ve done. The offense just wasn’t doing anything against Jeremy Bonderman. Luis Castillo led of the game with a bunt single and advanced to third on two Detroit errors. A guy on third with no outs usually means a run, but not on Sunday. Nick Punto struck out and Luis Castillo was thrown out at home while tagging up on Joe Mauer’s shallow fly to center. The next five innings were all the same for the Twins— 3 up, 3 down. Bonderman faced the minimum through 6 innings. In the seventh Castillo led off with a walk, but the next 3 batters all went down.

It was at that point I was preparing to accept the fact that the Twins were about to be swept by the Tigers. I was telling myself that it wasn’t so bad. At least they didn’t get blown away. I told myself that there’s still 2 months of baseball left. At that moment things started to get a little crazy. Justin Morneau started off the bottom of the eighth with a single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Carlos Guillen. Jason Kubel then hit a ball that Chris Shelton couldn’t handle at first. Justin Morneau scored on the error. Mike Redmond then doubled to score Kubel and bring the game within 1.

Still with no outs in the inning Jason Tyner singled to put runners at the corners. Jason Bartlett his a ball right down the third baseline and Mike Redmond dove back into third just missing the tag of Brandon Inge. Tiger manager Jim Leyland didn’t like the call. The craziness continued as a balk was called on Jeremy Bonderman with bases loaded. That scored the tying run and moved Tyner and Bartlett into scoring position. Luis Castillo’s groundout scored Tyner to put the Twins in the lead. Nick Punto made the second out and Joe Mauer was intentionally walked to put runners on the corners.

Detroit’s offense is good, and a 1-run lead is never safe even when Joe Nathan’s your closer. Michael Cuddyer tripled to score two huge insurance runs. Nathan allowed one run in the ninth, and the Twins escaped the wild game with a 6-4 lead.

Game Notes

• 6 errors were committed in the game. Four by Detroit.
• Nick Punto was 0-4 with 3 K’s. He’s 0-9 in his last two games.
• The Tigers scored only 4 runs on 13 hits. The Twins had just 6 hits.
• Rondell White left the game with a hamstring injury. It wasn’t clear how serious it was, but from a TV viewer’s perspective it seemed to be just a slight tweak.

Wildcard Race

The Twins win allowed them to move within 1 game of the White Sox and remain just 1.5 games behind the wildcard leading Yankees. July isn’t over until the Yankees have traded for a star player, and they did just that on Sunday, acquiring Bobby Abreau and Corey Lidel from the Phillies for prospects. Catching the Yankees isn’t going to be easy.

The Twins are still rumored to be one of the 4 teams (Astros, Angels and Tigers being the other 3) after Alfonso Soriano. With less than 24 hours before the deadline there still isn’t anything but speculation about what will actually happen. ESPN’s Jayson Stark seems to think the Angels are the frontrunner.

Hunter back Monday

Torii Hunter is expected to be back in the lineup on Monday, just 15 days after a stress fracture in his foot landed him on the DL. I fear that he’s rushing back, but after watching Tyner play CF for a few games, it’ll be nice to see Torii back out there. I got a kick out of Sid Hartman’s article the other day:

And the way Jason Tyner is playing center field, you wonder if that will have any effect on Hunter’s future with the Twins.

Tyner may have speed, but he’s got no arm which rules him out as an everday CF. Is it too much to expect a sports columnist to be able to differentiate between a good start and real talent? The Twins should bring back Torii Hunter in 2007. They’re certainly not going to find anyone that can fill his shoes, so it’s definitely a case where overpaying is called for.