Yeah, I’m worried about this road trip — especially starting off with four games against the Angels. I don’t like any of the pitching matchups but I do like that the Angels are 15 1/2 games in front of their division with 37 to play. I don’t like the state of our bullpen but the reports out of the West are that the Angels bullpen has been fraying a bit too. I am concerned about whether Alexi Casilla is really at 100 percent or whether there’s a setback waiting to happen at the pace of the major league game but I expect that Mike Scioscia is managing with an eye to the postseason and that could help the Twins.
I worry … and I’m excited about having this to worry about.

And that’s what is great about where we are right now. Through all the concerns and things about the Twins that make me a little crazy, I am very well aware that we are watching something that nobody expected would unfold this way. No Johan, no Torii, no problem. Well, yes, there are problems. But the White Sox have ‘em too. A bullpen that’s relying on a couple of ex-Royals in set-up roles; Paul Konerko and Jim Thome underperforming, Ozzie being Ozzie.

You can not deny that the 2008 Twins are taking us on an incredible ride and, for all the steps back, the season has been marked by continuous improvement. The four thumpings in Chicago back in June, the horrid performances in Boston and New York, the stunning setbacks in Seattle earlier this month. None of them caused a continuing tumble downhill.

In a 14-game road trip, there are likely to be some bleak moments, but the Twins have shown me that a game or two of bad won’t cascade into a week or two of bad.

The one thing that still gnaws at me is that last road trip. It feels a little silly to say the Twins should have gone 6-0 at Seattle and Kansas City. But they went 3-3 and threw away the three losses. If they’d won those games, we would be hitting the road with a two-game cushion instead of a one-game deficit. Of course, if the White Sox relievers hadn’t given up three homers in the last two innings at Oakland last Friday, we’d be looking at a two-game deficit.

These next three dozen games will determine whether there will be October baseball in Minnesota. If it happens, I’ll feel like I did yesterday when I found $20 in the pocket of some pants that hadn’t been worn for a while. It is a good feeling to be in the smaller set of American League teams (six by my count, if I include the Yankees) that are still playing to keep playing.

Keep expectations modest and hopes high. It’s the best way to watch.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. Someone suggested in the last set of comments that I felt sorry for Oakland’s Sean Gallagher because of watching games with Ms. Baseball. Ain’t the case. If you’ve ever been close to the game, it’s easy to feel bad for someone who gets into a situation that mushrooms out of his control. To me, that’s what happened to Gallagher the other night.

And, as for Ms. Baseball, she is a stone-cold assassin of a fan. One example: She thinks Grady Sizemore is, how do you say, pleasing to look at. But when Sizemore strikes out (and there are no innocent ears within hearing distance) she’s the one you hear calling out, “Sit down, b—h,” as Sizemore returns to the dugout.

Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like that?

other people are here too

By the 12th inning, a game can turn into a crapshoot of who’s available and who’s lucky. In this case, it was the Yankees who were lucky to have the middle of their order coming up against Matt Guerrier, who has given up 12 runs on 16 hits in his last six innings of work. Obviously, something ain’t right with Guerrier, who had logged more innings at this point last season (65 vs. 61 2/3) and was allowing less than one runner per inning in ‘07. So it’s not overuse.

Because Nick Blackburn scuffled through 4 2/3 innings, Gardy needed to trot out every reliever this side of Brian Bass — eight pitchers in all, including Joe Nathan for four outs.

It was a shame to waste Delmon’s three-run homer off Mariano Rivera, which could have been one of those over and over and over again highlights if the Twins had continued their rally and won the game.

(Here’s Patrick’s column on the bullpen situation and lack of front office action.)

Otherwise, there’s little wisdom to offer. You can pull out moments that could have made a difference, but right now that feels a bit like pulling a couple of weeds from an untended lawn. The one that I keep thinking about is the Xavier Nady double with two outs in the fourth, on which speed-impaired Jason Giambi scored from first base when Gomez missed the cutoff man (Everett) and Punto short-hopped a throw that Redmond couldn’t handle. The rule, again, is to get the throw home on the fly or make it bounce so the catcher isn’t handcuffed.

That’s all for now. Day game today. I’ll be there, with a Gurahead for commenter ganderson.

Did anyone find the one that was left along I-35 Sunday, somewhere near the Iowa border?

Didn’t drive off the road while listening to Sunday’s game on the way home from Kansas City. Got the first seven innings with the Royals crew, who are carried in Des Moines by a Christian station that broke up the game with bits of Bible wisdom, and then the final five with Gordo’n'Jack. The Royals announcers have a group man crush on the Twins based on what I heard … and then the Twins managed to live up to none of their hype.

Balls got thrown all over the place and the bases were left loaded twice, an extension of the untimely hitting that contributed to the unexpected outcomes in Seattle and a 3-3 road trip that should have been a 6-0 run. Sunday’s loss was a total team effort.

What many people will remember most vividly, though, is how Nick Punto capped off a stunningly bad two games by striking out four times Sunday and making two key misplays in the field. It was painful to listen to Jack Morris wail, “Oh, Nick” when he dropped a throw from the outfield on Mark Teahen’s double that opened the game-winning 12th — a base-running move that sounded destined to get Teahen thrown out at second if the play had been handled cleanly.

On Saturday, Punto’s night went downhill after he killed a first-inning Twins rally (first and third, none out) by stopping on the way to second base on a steal attempt because he thought the pitch to Joe Mauer was ball four (when it was really ball three). After that, he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts (including a sad flick-swing fly out to shallow center with the bases loaded and one out). On Sunday, the low-key Royals announcers called him out a bit for his complaining after his first two strikeouts.

Here’s where you can practice discipline. Remain calm when the temptation is to do otherwise,

Baseball is a game based on failure. You know the drill: Fail 70 percent of the time and you get lauded for hitting .300. I suspect that if Punto could better deal with failure, we wouldn’t see the wild swings between success and failure that are his career pattern — a pattern that, by the nature of the game and some of the things he does when things go wrong, brings his failures more to the fore.

Punto gives the appearance of being wound too tightly for his own good, and the team’s good. Get called out on strikes? Go back to the dugout, cuss yourself out quietly, get over it and play the field. A close play at first base? Do NOT dive head first! Defense? Know the right thing and execute. It would be great if the natural ability that shows itself in Punto being one of baseball’s most “web gemmed” players carried over into the situations that go beyond simply reacting.

Here’s the deal: Nick Punto has value to the Twins. But it’s neither as an everyday player nor the No. 2 batter in the order. That hardly qualifies as great or original thought.

For now, however, Punto is the only healthy second base option, if you believe that Brendan Harris’ trouble turning the double play disqualify him from playing that position regularly. The No. 2 slot in the batting order thing is more puzzling, but there isn’t a clear-cut answer. I could make a case for Buscher against right-handers, but you could counter that having lefties batting 1-through-5 in the order can make for scary late-game situations, especially if Brendan Harris is also in the lineup. Harris’ .322 OBP doesn’t exactly make him a great choice for the No. 2 spot when he plays and his stats skew worse against lefties this season. Delmon is the only other option (and not a good one) unless you want to have the whole “Mauer should bat second” discussion again (yawn), which would lead to deficiencies elsewhere in the order.

Someone needs to get into Punto’s head and somehow prove to him the virtue of an even keel. (Someone should do that for a lot of us bloggers too, although we might not be as much fun that way!) In the meantime, you can model good behavior by remaining calm as you discuss him. Deep breaths, everyone.

Another thing that would help: Hurry back, Alexi Casilla!

other people are here too

A fine night for baseball with the Twins winning and taking over first place again in the AL Central. Delmon goes deep and then doesn’t take any garbage when Zack Greinke hit him during the five-run sixth. Greinke has a suspension pending for his role in last weekend’s White Sox dust-up and I’m willing to believe that he was just stupid enough to be throwing at Delmon in that situation. Delmon did a good job of riling things up and then the Twins did a nice job of keeping things from getting ugly — and making their ultimate answer with a bunch of runs that broke open the game.

But back to baseball in Kansas City.

*First off, they are very tolerant of beach balls here. They were floating all over the park Friday and Saturday night and the blind eye that gets turned was confirmed when a beachball came to rest in the lower-level walkway — and a “Fan Assist” employee lazily kicked it into the back of a fan’s wheelchair. Nobody ever got hurt by a beachball that I know of, and I find them rather low on the list of ballpark distractions.

*People don’t get all hyper about bobbleheads here, either. It was Larry Gura Bobblehead Night and the ’70s and ’80s era Royals pitcher was on hand to autograph the 20,000 that were being given away. From what we could tell, there were enough for everyone who wanted one and you didn’t have to sleep outside the gates to get one. Not hardly. I think people here, while they have a crummy baseball team to follow, have a healthy perspective on the ceramic doohickeys. We may leave our Guraheads along I-35 during the drive home. So if you want one, check a rest area or a drive-thru.

*The funniest thing the Royals do is show recap highlights late in the game that, if you used ‘em to figure out what was happening, the Royals would be undefeated at Kauffman Stadium. You could watch Greinke strike out and Olivo hit a home run, and a myriad of other small accomplishments by the home team. But the game recap offered nothing about anything that went against the Royals. Kind of like Chinese television, in a much more harmless way.

The day threatened rain but the night was a beautiful one and there were many more Twins fans on hand Saturday than Friday. It wasn’t like being in the Dome, but you didn’t have to look far to find your allies. There’s a lot of “Go Twins” stuff in the hotel lobby as I’m writing this.

One final baseball word. I know there’s a lot of Adam Everett skepticism out there, but seeing him in person gives you a sense of the range he has, even though it’s obvious that his arm still isn’t 100 percent. He made a diving stop with two outs in the eighth and almost turned a spectacular force play at second, and then made a very good rangy play to get the final out with a quick and off-balance flip to third.

Everett also smacked a nice hit-and-run single in the second and drew a walk from Greinke that was key to the five-run sixth. I don’t know what his status will be when/if Casilla returns, but I think he’s going to get nothing but better with more work in the field and more at-bats. I can see what the Twins were thinking when they signed him.

And finally: Nice to see the bullpen throw 3 1/3 shutout innings without having to use Nathan, Crain or Guerrier. Booooooooooooooooof!

You know that you’re playing a struggling team when four guys come to the game with “COME” painted on their chests…

…and “BACK” painted on their backs.

In Kansas City, that’s apparently a surefire way to get on the ginormous scoreboard in center field. (I’m making a leap of faith here than the foursome didn’t visit the body art stand after the Twins took the early lead.)

This one should have been easier than it was. There should have been no need for the bases-loaded, two-out drama in the bottom of the ninth before David DeJesus grounded out for close the 4-1 victory.

As has been recent habit, the Twins didn’t come through in too many key situations. Carlos Gomez’s week proved to have little in common with Raul Ibanez’s week when Gomez struck out with the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning and again with the bases loaded and two outs in the third.

The encore whiff came after the Twins had taken a 3-0 lead, largely because the Royals starter couldn’t throw strikes and their shortstop launched a double-play relay closer to the first-base dugout than to the first baseman.

The Twins batted around but only scored 3 in the third. With the bases loaded and one out, Adam Everett did his best to break the game open but his line drive was caught with a dive by Esteban German, the Royals’ second baseman. 

Then, the Twins veered between going out meekly and wasting more chances. Nick Punto grounded out to the pitcher with runners at second and third in the sixth and, after Justin Morneau got an intentional walk in the ninth, Jason Kubel grounded into a double play that killed off a chance for the Twins to score a bunch of runs and maybe rest Joe Nathan for the night.

The final tally was 11 men left on base, seven of ‘em in scoring position.

Other than the needless drama, it was a fine night to be a Twins fan in Kansas City’s sweet ballpark, which is in the midst of an extensive makeover. Lots of Twins jerseys in the house — including Doug and Cristian and Bradke and Killebrew and even a Tony Fiore, as well as the current guys. Given last weekend’s punchout between the Royals and White Sox, it looked like nobody was silly enough to wear an AJ jersey. (Note to people with Santana jerseys: Keep ‘em in the closet, especially on the road.)

The Royals stayed close enough that their fans were loud, and the Twins presence wasn’t as overwhelming as it usually seems on TV when the y play here. But there was a fair amount of horn-honking in the parking lot afterward and the general consensus seems to be that reinforcements will be in town tomorrow.

You ought to make this trip sometime.