¡VIVA RIVAS!

What's more satisfying than watching the Twins beat the White Sox with a ChiSox fan? Watching the Twins beat the White Sox with two ChiSox fans, of course. The cherry on top is that the game had the wild card lead riding on it. That fact wasn't lost on the managers: Ozzie and Gardy micromanaged the bullpens in the middle innings like it was the playoffs, dragging the game out to about 3 hours.

That was my experience tonight at a local Waterloo bar and eatery, when two coworkers of mine (we won't call them friends since they're fans of The Enemy) and I sat down and cheered on our respective teams.
Some observations:

--How hot is Hunter? I was actually expecting big things from him in the clutch, and I didn't crack a joke about him swing at a slider in the dirt in the late innings.

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--Bartlett has always reminded a little bit of Jeter, and I don't mean that as an insult. Physically they're both slender and speedy. But I think what really does it is the way they both hit the ball up the middle and the opposite way so well. When I think Jeter, I think getting inside the ball and pushing an infuriating single over the 2B-men's head. Bartlett seems to have a penchant for those kinds of hits as well. The comparison ends there, though: Jeter hits for more power, and Bartlett doesn't have a cologne.

--Playoff atmosphere. I haven't seen the Twins bench as pumped as they were after Hunter's HR in a long time. And Manny Ramirez would have given AJ a "10 for Showmanship" for his HR Bat Flip (reminscent of his flip in the 2002 divisional series vs. Oakland and Billy "The Goat" Koch) Also, as I mentioned, the managers were very active with their bullpens.

--AJ's starting to wear on my nerves. First his swipe of his nose after an RBI single, imitating the Twins 'smell those RBI' a coupel games ago, and now the bat flip. I believe the Sox lost both those games.

--Still, I enjoyed the classic AJ at bat against Jesse Crain in the 8th. Must have burned through 10 pitches in that AB. Ah, the memories.

--Jesse Crain was Neshek unhittable. It's like the two switched places this game.

--Baseball Tonight tidbit from Tim Kurjikan: There were 4 HR hit in the AL Friday night, and they were all hit in the Twins-Sox game...and one of them was by Nick Punto, no less.

--Who else thinks Guerrier would make a decent 5 inning starter? We sure could use one of those right about now.

--Funny link for you Arrested Development fans: http://bluthdance.ytmnd.com/

--Something to ponder for the weekend:

Which of the 3 AL Central contending teams will have enough starting pitching to make the playoffs? Suddenly all three teams look thin in that department. In Detroit, Kenny Rogers is doing his usual second-half swoon, Verlander is a rookie who missed a start a couple weeks ago, and Bonderman is good but inconsistent at times. Robertson and Minor are back end rotation fillers. The ChiSox have a staff full of #3 starters this year. Most alarmingly for us Twins fans, what if Radke doesn't have anything left in the tank? As Souhan noted in Saturday's column, if that's the case, here's our rotation: Santana, Silva and the 3 rookies -- Garza, Bonser and Baker/Liriano. If Liriano can't make it back to the starting rotation, here's to hoping the Twins league leading bullpen ends up the difference maker.