Twins in First

For the first time since May 13, the Minnesota Twins--the team that stood pat during the recent Trade Deadline Sweepstakes--assume first place in the NL Central today.

Chicago had been waiting for its bats to heat up all season, and both Swisher and Konerko have had a few streaks of hot hitting, but they couldn't get the whole team hitting at the same time. So they grabbed Ken Griffey, Jr., a move that was part consummation of a long-time love affair with Junior by GM Kenny Williams and part best-choice trade.

Williams didn't give up much to get Griff, but it's hard to say where the aging outfielder fits in best. They've got him slotted in at center, where he's still adequate and no worse than Nick Swisher, but Junior's most valuable as a DH, and Jim Thome has been one of the few players to start cold and then get hot again. With both being lefties, it doesn't make sense to platoon them, either. And so there will be a rotation of sorts among Griff, Thome, Konerko and Swisher at first, DH and outfield.

Today, it wasn't enough to overcome even the lowly Kansas City Royals, however, in a 14-3 shellacking of the White Sox highlighted by a benches-clearing brawl in the fifth. And the result is that the Twins, who beat the Indians 6-2 to jump into first place.

The White Sox looked pretty awful, as starter Clayton Richard couldn't get out of the fourth inning, coughing up nine runs (six of them earned) on eleven hits and two home runs. After a wild pitch and error by Richard, the Royals put up five in the second inning and never looked back. By the time it was 6-0 in the fifth, reliever D.J. Carrasco came on with the bases loaded and promptly plunked catcher Miguel Olivo, after first buzzing him with a tight one. Olivo took umbrage, charged the hill, and earned an ejection for himself, while manager Ozzie Guillen and Carrasco were also tossed. 

Royals starter Zack Greinke also earned an early exit when he tried to get revenge in the seventh by hitting Nick Swisher, but by then the score was 12-2, and not even this could motivate the White Sox to score more than one run. Griffey started at DH, and went 1-2 before being pulled when the game was out of reach; Swisher went 1-3 and Konerko, 0-4. Only AJ Pierzynski collected more than one hit, including an eighth inning solo shot.

The White Sox offense is only half the story, however, as their starters have been struggling, too. Contreras, after a strong stretch, is now on the DL, Buehrle has lost four of his last six (including an eight-run outing on Saturday where he, too, could not escape the fourth), and Javier Vazquez has won one of his past seven starts (giving up three or more runs in six of them). Only youngsters Gavin Floyd and John Danks are even adequate, with Floyd winning half of his last ten, and Danks winning four of them.

The Twins, on the other hand, seem to be peaking at just the right time. After losing four straight, including a sweep by the Yanks, after the break, they've won seven of nine, including three of four against Chicago last week. Their upcoming schedule is mighty soft, too. Nine of their next twelve are against last-place Seattle and Kansas City, and only fourteen of their remaining games this season are against teams not named Seattle, Kansas City, Toronto, Baltimore, Detroit, or Cleveland. Chicago's remaining games, on the other hand, have twenty-one games not featuring this same pack of teams, and three of those twenty-one are against the Twins. 

Callin up Francisco Liriano, who has been torching AAA and who won the game today, is akin to a trade for Minnesota, and should bolster an already strong rotation. Scott Baker has only given up more than three runs twice in his last ten starts, as has Nick Blackburn (giving up one or no runs in four of the other seven starts). Their defense is as solid as their offense, and they just seem to hang in there. Their team batting average of .277 is fourth overall (and third in the AL) while their strikeout total is fourth lowest in the AL.

Sometimes, slow and steady wins the race, and Minnesota has been steady, if not utterly slow (their 58 team SBs is low to middling in the league). They may be able to wait out the streaky White Sox and take advantage of an easier schedule, building to a great head-to-head showdown in the penultimate series of the year.

Regardless of how it turns out, these two teams will make the last two months of the AL Central worth watching. Whether you choose to root for the big-money, big-market, big-name Chicago White Sox or the small-money, small-market, little-name Twins depends on your tastes, I suppose.

If it weren't for getting Griffey that ring (hopefully leading to a return gig in Seattle), you can guess who I'd be rooting for.