After All Star review

The Twins sit 6 1/2 games back after the break. Now who expected that after such a horrible start. Well I for one knew they would come back and not dwell at the bottom. Question is can they keep climbing, catch those pesky Indians and Tigers. Both of which we play in the last two weeks of July!
Aside from needing the Indians to play like themselves, in other words LOSE. The Tigers are notoriously lame in the last half. We got Ozzies number so i am not even worried about the White Sox who we will pass soon being only 1 1/2 games behind. Yes I know our team will have to continue to play at a very high level. As the Tigers fold we have had the habit of blooming in the second half. We have not been in first at the break but once. The following stat is from FSN Norths website

Central Championship Seasons
Twins at break in winning campaigns

2002 1st +7 1/2
2003 3rd - 7 1/2
2004 2nd - 1/2
2006 3rd -11
2009 3rd -4
2010 3rd -3 1/2

This tradition of coming back supports them doing it this year. This year has been different with the injuries and there are a lot of new guys. Its these new guys that have kept us in it, provided a bit of a spark.
Consistently minor leaguers have been called up and preformed admirably and at times brilliantly! I love Bennie Revere!! Not only his quick defense, timely hitting and base running But that SMILE! Love it! He seems like he's having a blast and he plays hard. For me Trevor Plouffe is the complete opposite, they did just call him back up. He tore it up in the minor after he got sent down but that doesn't erase how horrible he was when he was here. He cost us a couple games and played defense like he was in slow motion. I hope he bring his bat with him this time, it wont out weigh the mistakes he'll make defensively, but just maybe it will make him good trade fodder. He will never be good defensively. It will be hard for him to win me over again.
The turn around was helped by All-Star Cuddy staying steady as always as well as Alexi Casilla getting into a groove. He hit .286 in July! His speed and Reveres have proven beneficial -SPEEDBOYS! He seems more comfortable at second and already has more steals then in an entire season. Tsuyoshi Nishioka is finally back and starting to adjust. If you consider that he's playing in a completely new league in a foreign language he is doing pretty good. His arm seems strong enough for short and he is fast there. Now that we will be playing just AL teams he will see Pitchers again and I think he will do better against them. Heck he hit .290 in July!!
Of course we need somethings to go our way in the second half. Our pitchers need to stay steady, they don't need to be all stars just not fall apart. Joe has to stay healthy and Morneau get healthy. Imagine having Morneau healthy for the last two months!! I cant even remember what it was like to have him in Sept it was so long ago. (He began non baseball activities today!) Delmon needs to hit like last year. Cuddy and Kubel just need to stay steady as always. The schedule is in our favor with 12 straight home games to start after the break. Total of 41 of the final 72 are at home!!
I think we can do it! At the very least I will enjoy watching us beat the White Sox up a bit more. I will say the games have been exciting this last month even when we have lost.

GO TWINS!!