Winning Series

A lot of the time you'll hear people repeat an old baseball adage about not needing sweeps, but simply needing to win series. Over the last, the Twins have been the very definition of that. Coming into June with a 25-27 record, the Twins have won 5 of 8 series since then and tied another. They've lost only 1 of their last 6 series, yet they haven't had a winning streak longer than two games since May 24th. That's because they've only lost consecutive games once in that span, and only 3 times since May 24th (though both of those were 3 straight losses).

In that period of time, the Twins continued to dominate the National League. I'd hate to start taking this for granted, but that's pretty much what it's come down to. After posting a 12-6 record this year, which was 3rd in the AL and 4th overall, the Twins now hold a 53-19 record in interleague play since 2006. No wonder I always look forward to it!

All that has, believe it or not, landed Minnesota its best record of the season at 39-38. They've been 1 game over .500 five other times in 2009 (2-1, 3-2, 12-11, 18-17, 35-34) and have failed to win that next game all five times. Tonight Nick Blackburn will try to break that pattern when he takes the mound against Kansas City looking for a third straight complete game.