Hottest Team in Baseball?



The best team in baseball right now, if anybody's noticed, is in Minnesota. The Twins are going on seven straight weeks of lights-out play, a stretch that's way too long, and way too good, to be called a fluke. Certainly the Twins are making the White Sox, Tigers, Red Sox, Yankees and Blue Jays plenty nervous about their postseason possibilities.

Ten ways that the Twins are hotter right now than Ozzie Guillen in a beanball competition:

1. From June 1-7 they hit .170 (8 for 42) with runners in scoring position. Since then they're hitting .344.

2. Since his one and only blown save this season, on June 20, Twins closer Joe Nathan has been in 13 games, thrown 13 innings, struck out 23, walked only two and hasn't given up a run. He has 11 saves in the streak and a win.

3. The Twins are 50-0 when leading after eight innings.

4. Since June 7, after a 10-9 loss in Seattle that dropped them to 25-33, the Twins have had winning streaks of eight games, 11 games and eight games. Going into a critical series against the Tigers this weekend, they're riding a four-game win streak.

5. They're 9-1 since Gold Glove center fielder Torii Hunter was put on the disabled list on July 16.

6. They've won 34 of their last 42 games, the hottest stretch in team history.

7. They beat the White Sox 7-4 on Wednesday. All seven runs came with two outs.

8. Since June 7 the Twins' rotation is 26-6 with a 3.31 ERA.

9. Justin Morneau, since June 7: 16 homers, 46 RBIs, a .768 slugging percentage and a .402 batting average. Every one of those marks is tops in the majors except homers; David Ortiz has 17 in that period.

10. Joe Mauer is hitting .385 in the streak, shortstop Jason Bartlett .336 and third baseman Nick Punto .333. Punto has an 18-game hitting streak going, too.

And five reasons the Twins won't be pulling the old flip-flop and returning to their previous, bad form:

1. Matt Garza, a 22-year-old right-hander, is 2-1 with a 3.05 ERA in three starts for Triple A Rochester. Manager Ron Gardenhire wants him up on the big club. Now.

2. Gardenhire's making all the right moves. He gave Mauer the day off Wednesday and the Twins still won. That allowed the catcher two full days off before the big series with the Tigers.

3. Francisco Liriano and Johan Santana. Liriano's 1.58 ERA and 75 strikeouts since the streak began (he's 8-1 in that time) are the best in baseball. Santana is 7-1, with a 2.79 ERA in the streak. Together they're the most dominating duo in the game today.

4. Hunter, the team leader and the linchpin of the Twins' defense, is due to come off the DL next week. Better defense and a stronger bench, just like that.

5. General manager Terry Ryan won't make any stupid deadline trades this weekend. Why should he?