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To begin a 14-game road trip, Minnesota’s first two turns in the rotation have stepped up to shut down one of the AL’s best line-up’s and in the process have given one of the league’s better bullpen’s a much-needed break.  Glen Perkins followed Scott Baker’s eight innings of one-run ball on Thursday with eight shutout frames of his own last night to improve to 11-3 on the season and put the Twins a half-game in front of the Chicago White Sox.

The best young outfield in the game

I’m just going to come out and say it – you’d be hard-pressed to find a better young outfield than the one currently covering pastures for the Minnesota Twins.  The triumvirate of Delmon Young, Carlos Gomez and Denard Span averages out to just under 23 years of age, but don’t let their youth fool you – these boys can play.  And last night may have been their collective coming out party.

DY hit a 2-run bomb to center and drove in three, Andale picked up a pair of hits and stolen base number 27 while the offensive star of the game was Span, who went 3-for-5 with four steaks and his third big fly of the season.

To recap: Minnesota’s outfield went 7-for-13 with 2 homers, 7 RBI and a stolen base.  Put another way – the Twins outfield won the game.

An interesting comparison

Shortly before Denard Span laced his 3-run homer into the right field seats last night, Twins FSN North play-by-play man Dick Bremer compared him to another left-handed hitting outfielder in the stadium – Garret Anderson.

Knowing what we know about Mr. Anderson makes that a tough image to conjure but in both resemblance and skill, there’s merit to what Bremer said.  Both Span and Anderson are, as Bremer put it “expressionless and stoic”, and in watching Span’s home run cut you couldn’t help but see Garret Anderson in that swing. 

They’re not exactly carbon copies of each other, however with Garret an All-Star and World Series-winning franchise player with more power in the twilight of his career while Denard possesses superior speed in a career that is just beginning.  That said, believe this – if Span is half the player for the Twins that Anderson has been for the Halos the past 15 years, Minnesota will be blessed.

You gotta love Twins baseball

Up 8-0 and 9-0, respectively, Justin Morneau hustled out a ground ball and nearly beat the throw to 1^st while Nickie Punto dove headlong into 1^st to beat that particular throw to put Minnesota up by three field goals.  No matter the score, these guys bust their behinds all the time — and if you can’t dig that, I can’t help you.

2 down, 12 to go:

2-0

Would pre-destination be too strong a word?

Over the winter, Minnesota dealt one-time “shortstop of the future” Jason Bartlett and talented right-hander Matt Garza to the DEVIL Rays for DY and while it’s wasn’t the glamour deal of Josh Hamilton for Edinson Volquez, that tranaction, too has worked out for both sides.  Long story short – Jason Bartlett put the Rays ahead late in Chicago last night while former Twins reliever Grant Balfour set Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye down on strikes in the to preserve a Tampa advantage that would hold up.  The Pale Hose are now a half-game behind the Twins in the Central thanks to Glen Perkins, the talented outfield trio and a pair of former Twins a half a country away.

Once a Twin, always a Twin.

Scoreboard watching

With the Twins now up in the Central, the ChiSox take the field this afternoon with Javier Vazquez on the hill to face off with Tampa’s super southpaw Scott Kazmir to form a fantastic pitching match-up on the South Side.  But before we move on to the hurlers for the Twins/Angels tonight — did you see that play at the plate John Danks made last night? Sick!

Nick Blackburn tries to become the fourth Twins starter to reach 10 wins on the season but will have to do it against long-time Minnesota nemesis Jon Garland at the Big A tonight.

Game on!

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