Six Straight

The Twins picked up their sixth consecutive victory last night with a 5-3 victory in Pittsburgh, clinching a rare road series win and bringing them within a game of .500. Once again it was the young bats powering the Twins' offense, as Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel each homered to continue their torrid hot streaks (between them, they have homered nine times in the last eight games) and Terry Tiffee hit his first home run of the season. Jason Bartlett drove in a crucial insurance run in the ninth inning to give some breathing room to Joe Nathan, who picked up his third save in as many days.

Boof Bonser struggled a bit and was pulled after just 3 and 1/3 innings, but the Twins got surprising contributions from struggling relievers Kyle Lohse and Jesse Crain. On the post-game show, Ron Coomer talked about how he wouldn't be surprised to see Lohse back in the rotation soon. Yep, two solid innings in relief against one of the worst teams in baseball is plenty to make me forget about that 8.46 ERA and .330 opponents' batting average. Let's get him back in the rotation where he belongs! Maybe we should stick him in at short and get Bartlett back to Triple-A so he can work on bringing up that pathetic .429 batting average.

The Twins have a favorable pitching matchup today with Johan Santana going against Oliver Perez, who has struggled mightily this season. That gives them a good chance to be back at .500 when they head into Houston for what should be a very interesting series against the Astros.