Jolly Good

Just a quick note on what felt like a very necessary win accomplished in absolutely necessary fashion, or something like that.

After Friday night’s 13-inning affair –a game that featured another shitty performance from Ramon Ortiz and valiant comebacks that ultimately came up short– the Twins desperately needed to give their beleaguered bullpen (Pat Neshek and Matt Guerrier, in particular) a breather. To accomplish that they were going to have to get a solid start from Carlos Silva. Solid-plus, something better than merely good or decent. Seven innings, minimum.

Given the Jackal’s recent track record, that seemed like a long shot, but Silva more than delivered, going seven-and-a-third innings and surrendering only two runs. And the offense did just enough against A.J. Burnett (three hits, four runs, three of them earned) to eke out a 4-2 victory, take their third straight series, and give themselves another shot (and their middle relievers another day of rest) tomorrow afternoon with Johan Santana taking the mound against the White Sox.

With the Central proving to be almost exactly as tough as everybody was predicting back in April, the Twins are facing a seriously uphill battle in closing the gap. The last week, however, has demonstrated that this is another pretty resilient team. With the bullpen plagued by injury and, increasingly, overwork, and with Slowey and Garza waiting in Rochester, doesn’t it make perfect sense to call up at least one of those guys and move Ortiz into the bullpen to eat up middle innings?

Granted, it’s improbable that either Slowey or Garza will be this year’s Francisco Liriano, but –what the hell– it still makes perfect sense to me.

Also, what do you do with the batting order when Joe Mauer finally comes back? Since Mauer’s been on the DL, Luis Castillo has been streaking in the leadoff spot, and Morneau has been a monster batting cleanup. At this point the sad truth is that Mauer would actually be a perfect guy to bat second, given his bat control, low strikeout totals, and often ridiculous willingness to lay down a bunt. I don’t think, though, that Gardenhire is going to pencil Mauer in the two-hole, or move Morneau into the third slot. Batting the two lefties back-to-back goes against basic baseball logic, but nonetheless seems perfectly logical to me. I’d want to get Morneau to the plate in the first inning as often as possible, and with Castillo and Mauer in front of him, and Cuddyer and Hunter behind him, that’s an awful lot of RBI possibilities, and little wiggle room to pitch around the MVP.