On May 21st the Detroit Tigers went ahead of the Chicago White Sox for the AL Central lead. That set up the White Sox as the wildcard leader, a position that they remained in all season—until last night. Yes, after over two months there’s a new wildcard leader in the AL. It’s not the Twins, yet. The Twins completed the sweep of the White Sox allowing the Yankees to go 1/2 game ahead of both the White Sox and Twins.

For all we know the White Sox could find themselves back in the wildcard race in the next day or two, but the way things are going now you have to believe the Twins will be the next team to take the wildcard lead. The Twins sit 8.5 games behind the Central leading Tigers and will host a 3-game series against them beginning Friday. The good news is that they’ll have their top three starters facing the Tigers—Liriano, Radke and Santana.

The Twins have been beat up badly by the Tigers this year, but none of that matters. While they’ve lost 7 of 9 games, they’re 2-1 against them at the dome where they’ll play this weekend. The Tigers also haven’t played the Twins since the amazing run started.

Wednesday afternoon’s game was impressive. Silva didn’t pitch particulary well yet the Sox lineup failed to hurt him too much. Michael Cuddyer gave the Twins an early lead with a first inning 2-run homer. Justin Morneau hit his second homer of the series and 27th of the season in the fifth inning. Despite Pat Neshek giving up his first run of his career, the Twins bullpen continued to be the best in baseball. The ERAs of the relievers that pitched in the game is pretty incredible.

• Neshek: 1.08
• Reyes: 1.33
• Rincon: 1.95
• Nathan: 1.47

Game Notes

• Justin Morneau had 3 hits and 3 RBI in the game. His batting average continues to climb (now at .313) and his RBI total is at 84.
• Nick Punto had 2 hits to extend his hit streak to 18 games, currently the best in the AL
• Jason Bartlett finished a phenomenal series with a 3-4 day at the plate. He was 8-12 in the series with 2 doubles and of course the huge HR on Tuesday night.
• Josh Rabe was 3-5 in a rare start at DH.
• Joe Nathan picked up his 21st save.

What to do about Silva?

I think it’s time to give up on Silva. He did pick up the win in the start, but that was thanks to the fact that he got plenty of run support and wasn’t allowed to pitch past the fifth inning. The White Sox hitters were pretty impatient at the plate which probably helped Silva a lot.

The Twins don’t have a lot of good options to replace him. They could put Lohse back in the lineup. There’s also been talk of calling up Matt Garza who’s been nothing short of amazing in the minors this year. He started out the year at the single-A level with no expectation of pitching in the big leagues until perhaps September of 2007. He dominated in each level of the minors including the AAA level where he’s currently at. You hate to rush pitchers like that and then put the weight of a pennant chase on their shoulders, but Garza may be one of the rare youngsters that can handle it.

The trade deadline is on Monday, so trading for a pitcher is always an option too. Philadelphia’s Cory Lidle and Jon Leiber have been mentioned, but I’m not conviced either of those two are much better than what the Twins currently have.