A Good Weekend

This post is going up at about noon on Monday, and these mid-day postings might become a more common occurrance this season as I won't always have time to get something up before bed but would like to have new posts up on most days. So if you come by in the morning and there is nothing new, please consider checking back later in the day. Anyway, back to baseball...

The Twins seemingly got back on track this weekend, and all the jolt they needed was a two-out, cycle-completing, go-ahead grand slam. Who would've thought it'd be so easy?

After Jason Kubel's heroics highlighted a dramatic late comeback on Friday night, the Twins got a resurgent outing from Kevin Slowey in a dominant 9-2 victory on Saturday night and then received yet another eight-inning gem from Glen Perkins on the way to a 3-1 win yesterday to complete the series sweep. Finally the doomsday proclamations have calmed down as the Twins are back to .500 and a game out of first place. What a difference a weekend makes.

Of course, three straight wins don't make this team's problems go away. The bullpen looked absolutely awful on Friday night and remains a heavy concern. We still need to see Scott Baker get on track, which he can hopefully do tomorrow night in Boston. And several hitters in the lineup continue to struggle, including Alexi Casilla and Carlos Gomez.

But, for the time being, this was a good weekend. It must have felt good for the Twins to be on the other side of some tough outcomes they've suffered through this year: the bullpen implosion, the blowout loss, and coming up short in a low-scoring affair.

Now, the challenge becomes keeping it up and turning a good weekend into a good week. Next on the docket is a two-game series in Fenway Park. Let's hope it takes a little bit less to spark the team into action in this series than it did in the last one.