Trevor Hoffman is the career saves leader with 539. But the more important statistic this year is home runs -- he's given up five in 26 innings. Last year he gave up only two jacks in 57 and one-third innings.
On Tuesday night Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher hit solo homers on consecutive pitches, and Joe Nathan came in to pitch a perfect ninth as the Twins won their seventh in a row.
The Twins young pitchers continued to do well. Tonight it was Kevin Slowey, who outdueled Jake Peavy, though he didn't figure in the decision. Slowey allowed only four hits over six innings, and then the Twins bullpen did the rest.
Slowey retired 14 straight batters after a pair of singles in the first. Though San Diego has not been a good team this season, that's pretty good.
Buscher's on a roll, hitting .368 after going two for four with a run and an RBI. Justin Morneau went two for three with a walk and extended his hitting streak to 12 games. Michael Cuddyer -- one of the players who has to do well down the stretch for the Twins to contend -- went two for four with an RBI and is now hitting .260.
The Twins remain a game and a half behind the White Sox, who beat the Dodgers, 6-1. The odd thing is that all the players the Twins got in trades have made minimal contributions. It's the young players -- and bullpen stalwarts such as Nathan -- who have propelled the Twins into the AL Central race.
Delmon Young, Adam Everett and Mike Lamb haven't done much. Carlo Gomez has done OK in center field. The core group of solid players in the lineup -- Morneau, Joe Mauer and Cuddyer -- has done well, with Cuddyer finally picking it up.
One surprise has been Alexi Casilla at second base. He was acquired from the Mets in the trade for Luis Castillo last year, and is hitting .301. Buscher has been great. And Jason Kubel is starting to hit the ball, though he didn't contribute to the Twins' victory Tuesday.
San Diego can be thankful they're in a lousy division, though no one thought that would be the case before the season started. Both the Diamondbacks and Dodgers lost.
Slowey lowered his ERA to 3.96 after his strong outing. Nick Blackburn's ERA is 3.68, Scott Baker's is 3.47 and Glen Perkins' is 4.39. They've all done well during the Twins' winning streak. And Livan Hernandez, who was supposed to be the ace of the stuff, has an ERA of 5.23. (The team has gotten some runs for him and he's 8-4.)
San Diego has all kinds of problems. Even Morneau got a stolen base on him tonight -- that's a sign the catcher can't throw out anybody.
