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The Twins' 1-0 victory on Sunday over Cleveland put them within 4 1/2 games of the Indians for the AL Central lead and within 4 games of Wild Card leading Detroit. It's the closest they've found themselves to the lead since May and Sports Club Stats gives them an 11.4 14.6% chance of making the playoffs.

Winning the series against Cleveland was certainly not expected the way the Twins limped into Cleveland after being clobbered in Toronto. With C.C. Sabathia on the mound for Cleveland it seemed even less likely the Twins could win the rubber game of the series.

Johan Santana entered Tuesday's game against Texas coming off his most dominate start of the season last week in Cleveland. On Tuesday night he did even better. He had 7 strikeouts through three innings and left the game after the seventh with a season high 13 strikeouts. His only run allowed was on Sammy Sosa's 598th career homer.

In Milwaukee there was hardly a thing to complain about on Friday and Saturday night. The Twins seemed to be turning a corner. Sunday's loss was disappointing, but could largely be blamed on Ramon Ortiz and Dennys Reyes. Things got ugly on Monday in Texas which could lead to the conclusion that the Twins just happened to catch the Brewers at a good time.

The Twins have ridded themselves of one problem in Sidney Ponson, but there are still many more. Joe Mauer is still out for at least another week and despite Sunday's breakout performance, the offense has struggled to produce runs as the Twins have lost 4 straight series. To make matters worse they'll take on the 21-14 Indians who are 11-3 at their combined homes (They played a series in Milwaukee).

The Twins offense is now officially in a slump. They haven't managed to exceed three runs scored in the past three games, all three of which came against poor to average pitchers. On Tuesday night the Twins dropped the second game of the 2 game series against Cleveland despite the fact that they had ace Johan Santana on the mind. The Twins rely heavily on the guys in the middle of the lineup, mainly Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer. Over the past three games the two have combined to go 4 for 24 with just 2 RBIs. This isn't meant as a knock on Morneau and Cuddyer--everyone is entitled to a slump from time-to-time, it's meant to indicate that with guys like Jason Tyner, Nick Punto, Jason Bartlett and Alexi Casilla batting at the ends of the lineup, the offensive relies almost exclusively on the RBI production of Cuddyer, Morneau and Torii Hunter behind Joe Mauer, who is always on base.

The Twins will open up a short two game series against the Cleveland Indians on Monday night at the dome. The Twins will be fortunate enough to miss C.C. Sabathia by one day and they'll have Johan Santana going for them on Tuesday.

Live commentary was provided for this game.

The only things colder than the weather in Cleveland were the bats of the Twins. Jason Johnson, a mediocre pitcher, dominated the Twins for 7 innings. Johnson gave up 4 hits and one walk in the game.

The Twins dropped the series after losing the 3rd game to the Blue Jays by a score of 6 to 3. Mauer, Kubel and Castro had the day off in preparation for tomorrow's day game in Cleveland (and also because of a LHP tonight).