Twins lose another heartbreaker. Leave 13 men on base, struggle to get that one important hit with guys on base late in the game. As I was watching, and hoping for a comeback, I tempered my expectations for the team. Normally I'll think to myself "If we can pull this win off, we could start a serious run here." Unfortunately, this year, I struggle to see how this team can win 5 in a row or 9 of 10. Not saying they won't have winning streaks of anything past 2 (season long for 2012), but with this starting pitching, the team is

so dependent on it's offense, it will have nights like tonight where they get runs, and opportunities, but don't cash in every time. I still have hope for a .500 season, and am getting excited for the Amateur Draft in June, but games like tonight are difficult to digest.

Equally tough night for the minor league teams. A night after sweeping the levels (with Rochester being rained out), 3 out of the 4 teams lose tonight, with Beloit the lone winner in the organization. And that feat was accomplished with Sano and Rosario going 0-for-8 with 1 walk.

Twins have a day off Thursday and host Kansas City starting Friday. Kansas City pulls out a victory tonight against Cleveland to snap their 12 game losing streak, a feat I felt was important prior to the Royals coming to town this weekend.

Now that the 19 game stretch is over, we can look back and see some missed opportunities, and better see our strengths and opportunities. Offense will be relied upon to win majority of games. Pitching's bigger weakness is in the rotation, not the bullpen. Infield defense is improved from 2011, and outfield defense is drastically worse. For the first time in a few years, Gardy is putting an offensive minded lineup, not defensive.

Finally, the AL Central is much tighter than anticipated. I acknowledge it's still in the first month of play, but Cleveland and Chicago are virtually tied with Detroit, all 2 games over .500. So as the Twins struggle through the first 19 games, Tigers fans could be easily as frustrated for not running away from the pack as everyone predicted.

Apologies for rambling, but after last night's excuse of a post, I wanted to get into a few things I've been thinking about.

Finally a link to the Day by Day as of 4/25/2012:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AiRVhKu18uIhdDBSYUc5UGtSMkluOEFSWFdnTVdvQVE&output=html