Nightly Notes: Game #45

For one night at least, the Twins seemed like the Twins of late last year, with everything pretty much going according to plan. It was frankly nice to see after a couple of poor performances in a row. Before I get to the notes, a quick site update -- I'll be posting the AA Down on the Farm Report later tonight. Tomorrow, I will post a Nightly Notes column on the game, but I have a party to attend tomorrow night and so will not have a chance to work on a Down on the Farm report. That means that I'll be posting the High A Down on the Farm report on Thursday. The Low A Report (and I haven't done one of those in about a month!) may go up Friday, but I also may not have a chance to do it until Saturday. Either way, I will get one done. Regular schedule on these should return next week. Now, to tonight's notes:

1.) Johan Santana looked like Cy Young Santana tonight, and we as fans can only hope that he's going through his annual late May transformation from a very good Major League pitcher to The Best Pitcher in Baseball (all caps required). Tonight, he went 7 innings and gave up just 1 run (on a well-hit ball by Sammy) on 4 hits while striking out 13 batters. As I said yesterday -- Johan Santana can be "The Stopper" for a team, Carlos Silva cannot. Tonight was proof.

2.) Justin Morneau had yet another 2 homer game, and Torii Hunter decided to knock one out of the park as well. This probably shouldn't surprise anyone -- Hunter has been money all season, and Morneau is starting to look awfully comfortable at the plate. These guys are doing their best to keep the Twins afloat in the AL Central race.

3.) Ron Gardenhire had been giving Lew Ford playing time because he said that he'd been swinging a good bat -- but he's hitting just .185 and hasn't looked that good to me. I was happy to see Jason Kubel back in the lineup today, even if he did just go 1-for-4.

4.) Jeff Cirillo is a better hitter than his .209 average indicates. It would just be nice if he could demonstrate that.

5.) Dennys Reyes is probably headed to the DL on Thursday when the Twins get back to Minnesota. While the Twins have indicated that Jason Miller is probably the next guy who well get a call-up, I'm going to continue to advocate for Ricky Barrett, who is already on the 40-man roster and has been lights out so far this year for Rochester, albeit in limited action.

6.) The Red Wings website is reporting that the Wings will get a pitcher from New Britain before Thursday's game. It seems quite likely that the new pitcher will be lefty Jose Mijares, a member of the Twins 40-man roster. The way Twins relievers are dropping like flies, I wouldn't be too surprised to see Mijares make his Major League debut sometime this season.

7.) Joe Mauer is getting closer to healthy. My guess is that he'll come off the disabled list on Monday or Tuesday of next week, but that's just a guess.