Twins on Top of the Central and Other Tidbits

With their victory against the Angels last night at Anaheim, the Twins are in sole possession of the first place of the American League Central division and tonight with their ace, Kevin Slowey on the mount facing the Angels Joel Piniero ,who is 2-6 with 4.32 ERA and 1.484 WHIP in 15 games againt the Twins for his career (the Twins have an .807 OPS and hit 9 HR in 91.2 innings against him, with Mauer and Morneau leading the stats parade with 1.806 OPS in 20 PA and 1.601 OPS in 17 PA, against Pineiro respectively), the Twins have a further chance to solidify their lead in their division. Here are my thoughts from the game and the season so far:

• I think I like this home run happy team. The Twins had their second multi-home run game of the season and lead the AL (and tied with Arizona for the lead in the majors) with 6 HRs. The SS position produced 10 HRs last season, while the number 8 position in the lineup produced seven. J.J. Hardy already has 2.


• Pavano will be a solid pitcher for the Twins. As Ed Price indicated earlier this morning he is the only opposing pitcher since Brad Penny in June of 2006 to hold the Angels to less than 2 R in 7 seven or more innings without walking anyone and striking out six or more. A truly great performance and I hope the sign for many more good things to come. Food for thought: Pavano last season was as much removed from surgery as Liriano and Crain are this season. Liriano and Crain have beem much more improved, this might indicate that Pavano's arm might be close to his world championship season form


• Jon Rauch collected his second save of the season in 2 opportunities. As a reminder, Joe Nathan did not get his second save before game 12 of last season


• On an unrelated, with last night's game but very related to the Twins note:
  There have been several break-downs of Pat Neshek's delivery (this one from the Baseball Think Factory is exceptional) and recently, in the Twins' spring training game against the Phillies, the Phillies announcers described his delivery as "throwback" and indicated that it "reminded them of pitchers from the 1920s". I have always thought that I have seen a delivery like Pat's before and that 20s remark lit up a lightbulb. So, without further ado, I present you a former member of the Twins' franchise (and a legendary Hall or Famer) whose delivery has been re-incarnated into Pat Neshek: Walter Johnson, the big train
  
  
  

Game time at 7:05 PDT tonight. Be there. Twins win!