Meet the Twins

Here's a preview of the Phils' competition this weekend from devoted Twins blogger Batgirl:

Dear Dave,

The Twins have had a strange year. We were freakish in April, carrying the best record in the AL for a long time. Our pitching was unsteady, but we hit like crazy—we were averaging nine runs a game for awhile.

Well, when you're a small market team, you have to pay for that kind of month, and pay we did. We were 11-16 in May, and—oh it pains me to say this—2-5 against the freakin' Devil Rays. That's right, I said the Devil Rays. Oh, and the Chicago Bitch Sox pretty much walked all over us in a four game series at home, causing much distress among Twins fans, and bumping us out of first.

The bright spots of the month—and believe me, there were few—were the reemergence of Brad "Rad" Radke as a force to be reckoned with, and the performance of our new closer, Joe Nathan. You may remember that Nathan was a set-up man for the Giants; we got him in the A.J. Pierzynski trade and when we lost Everyday Eddie, he become our closer. Not that there were many save situations for us in May, but when he did come in, it was pretty much lights out.

Of course, most of our team spent time on the DL in May, and only now are we returning to health (physical and mental). I think the slump might be over—thanks to the Miracle Mets. Our hitting still isn't where it should be—everyone who's supposed to be hitting .300 is at .250. Doug Mientkiewicz couldn't hit a whiffle ball right now, and Jacque Jones is only now remembering how that whole bat-on-ball thing works. Watch for a couple of rookies; outfielder Lew Ford started the season in Triple AAA then was called up when Torii Hunter pulled his hammy the first week of the season and has never looked back. He's been on the leaderboard in average and OBP and is playing left now while Shannon Stewart recovers from a foot problem. Also, he's kind of adorable, and has become kind of a folk hero in these parts. (You know how Midwesterners like their folkheroes). Then there's catcher Joe Mauer, who's barely 21. He tore his meniscus the second game of the season, and is just finding his swing again. But it is a very, very, very nice swing.

If my calculations are correct (and they rarely are), former Phil Carlos Silva will open the series. You should have seen him in April; he was just awesome, and we began to call him "Carlos the Jackal." Well, now he's doing a Jackal-and-Hyde thing; but we've had three great starts in a row from our pitching staff and we can't help but hope it brings out the Jekyll in him.

[NOTE: Silva will not get the call in tonight's series opener. The Phils will face onetime stud prospect-turned-journeyman Seth Greisinger, whom I met years ago when he was pitching for the U.S. Olympic team. Nice guy. Hopefully he'll serve up a delicious meatball platter this evening.--DJF]

Anyway, like I said, we're just recovering from a terrible slump, and we really need to win this series. Do you mind?

Yours,
Batgirl