Ozzie loves Twins, hates Sox

The Twins' Wednesday afternoon win over the White Sox is the kind of win that usually indicates the Twins are in their zone.
Because let's face it, the Twins are as good as anyone in baseball at winning cheaply, and I think scoring 7 runs on 7 hits and 8 walks - including the game-winner with the bases loaded - qualifies.
When games are being won with walks, errors, balks, choppers off the plate, hit batsmen and the like, you know it's safe to believe in them.
This is what they do.

And that's probably what Ozzie Guillen's talking about whenever he blabs about the Twins and how good they are.
Ozzie, who made a few All-Star games as a player and won a rookie of the year award despite being a rather awful offensive player, would've fit in perfect as a Twins infielder. He was the quintessential Piranha.

I of course, think the whole Piranha thing is a bunch of bullshit, and any fan over the age of 7 should be able to see that, too. Still, for the Twins to keep up with Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, they will need to continue winning their share of head scratchers.

*Ozzie might've made a mistake in bringing in David Aardsma to face Torii Hunter in the 9th.
After the Twins loaded the bases with 1 out against Mike McDougal, Ozzie made the logical move to bring in lefty Boone Logan to get Justin Morneau, and got Aardsma up to face Hunter.
But Logan retired Morneau on one pitch (nice AB there by the way, Justin). Hunter was coming up and Aardsma probably wasn't ready.
Ozzie had a choice: let the lefty Logan face the righty Hunter, or bring in the righty Aardsma even though he was probably not fully warm.
He chose the latter, and Aardsma walked the most impatient hitter on the team on four straight pitches that weren't even really close.
To tell the truth, I probably would've done the same thing Ozzie did. I just wonder if Aardsma's control was affected by his short warmup time.

*Nick Punto drew three of the Twins 8 walks. Punto has been the offensive disappointment that many of us feared this year, but I'll say this for him - his poor hitting stats haven't led him to return to the hacking ways of his past.
Punto's average sits at .237, and his slugging percentage is an embarassing .295.
But his OBP is .337, a full 100 points above his batting average.
That means he's working as many walks as he possibly can.
It still doesn't make him a good offensive player, but it keeps him from falling into Juan Castro territory.
A lot of fans are rightfully bitching about the fact that Punto remains in the 2-hole, as opposed to hitting 8th or 9th, but I wonder if Gardy isn't doing that because he fears that if he drops Punto down, he'll go back to hacking away and stop drawing a fair amount of walks.
Just a theory, and in any event, Jeff Cirillo should get more ABs.

*Joe Mauer's comeback has been pushed back again. Could be another week.
I don't blame the Twins, because they can't afford to rush him back and then lose him for an even longer period.
My concern is that Mauer could be injury-prone, and that we'll have to deal with this crap every year.

*The bullpen doesn't seem to miss Jesse Crain, Dennys Reyes and Glen Perkins. Sure didn't on Wednesday.
Matt Guerrier, Jason Miller, Pat Neshek and Joe Nathan combined for six scoreless, hitless innings to allow the Twins to come back from a 6-1 deficit.
I like what I see in the lefty Miller, especially since Reyes has been such a disappointment this year. And as I said the other day, Guerrier is a probably a better option in key spots than Crain was anyway.

*Morneau leads the Twins with 16 homers. Hunter is second with 11. Michael Cuddyer is third with 7.
Jason Kubel is fourth with 2.
Cirillo, Mike Redmond, Luis Rodriguez and Mauer are tied for fifth with 1.
The rest of the roster is tied for sixth with zero (0).
So right now, the Twins 3-4-5 hitters have hit 85% of the teams homers (34 of 40).
I'd have to believe that would be a record of some sort if it ends up that way.

*Kevin Slowey makes his much anticipated debut Friday against Oakland.
My predicition: 6 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, 3 Ks and a 4-3 Twins win.