My best friend from high school and me stay in touch but seldom see each other. We decided we would attend a game sometime this summer and he called me last week telling me that he had tickets given to him to see the Astros--yes! The Astros--today. We met and had lunch and then attended the game. The weather was pleasant (mid 70s and mostly cloudy) and the Twins should certainly have had a chance since they were playing the worst team in mlb.

The Twins did prevail 3-2 and the crowd was again pretty good (over 34,000) and they appreciated the positive moments that occurred during the game. There really weren't many positive moments. Pelfrey was his struggling self, pitching into and out of trouble in almost every inning. Except for two big flies, the Twins' offense did next to nothing. There weren't many good fielding plays or long fly balls, except for the two that cleared the fence.

Some observations: Carroll started at third and looks .......really old. He doesn't have much zip on his throws (I noticed he's played almost no SS this year), his ABs were pretty poor. Morneau had a couple good rips besides his homer. I'll let others at TD debate whether today was a blip on the radar or something else. When I looked at the lineup and the Twins bottom of the order, I saw Thomas (minor leaguer), Carroll (should be retired) and Bernier (minor leaguer) with Herrmann and Colabello also on the roster and I'm thinking not good thought about Minnesota's GM. Arcia hit a couple balls right on the nose including the game winner and the major difference between the Twins and Astros is that the Twins have a decent, functional bullpen.

I listened to more espn1500 this morning than I have in months. I heard Jim Souhan call out Trevor Plouffe and say that someone in the Twins' FO told him that nobody wanted any of the Twins available at the deadline. I don't hold out much hope for the club for the rest of the year. I think an August trade would be helpful, but unless somebody starts hitting or pitching better, I don't think that will happen. The roster is relatively old with a lot of guys that have zero upside.

Oh, well. The Twins won a game and I got to see an old friend. And Target Field is a really nice venue.