Mariano Rivera Topic Page

Integrity of the game is probably not something Pete Rose is best qualified to be speaking about.

Early in the week I did a player-by-player rundown of the 2006 season. Now it's time for the pitchers.

The Twins have lost two straight games to a team they should beat. There's still a month left in the season, but if the race comes down to the final days of the season, they might be able to look back at two games that slipped away, despite pretty good pitching performances from Matt Garza and Boof Bonser. For a while it looked like Wednesday was going to shape up to be a good day for the Twins. Detroit was losing its second game in New York, the White Sox were losing, and the Twins were leading the Royals 2-0. That all changed abruptly.

It looked like the NL was going to end it's nine game All-star win streak as Trevor Hoffman, one of the most prolific closers of all time, came on for the ninth inning. The game had been a 2-1 pitchers duel up to that poing. With 2 outs the AL pulled out a single and two doubles to take a 3-2 lead and Mariano Rivera held that lead in the bottom of the inning.

Last week I whined about how difficult it was to pick a player of the week, since the team as a whole had played so poorly. I hoped that this week's decision would be difficult for a different reason, and my wish has certainly come true.

The Twins played their most exciting game of the season Saturday night against the Yankees, pulling off a victory in the bottom of the 9th inning with a 2-run hit by Justin Morneau.

The Athletics came into the dome riding the momentum of series victories over the Yankees and Mariners, but the 4-run lead they established early in the game wasn't enough to hold off the Twins. In front of a sell-out home opener crowd, the Twins recorded their second victory of the season.