The Twins are still in contention?

We haven’t taken the time to look at the Twins here lately in the past couple of weeks, so let’s see how they’ve done in the past 28 days, shall we? In the past 28 days, they have:

– Gone 13-13
– Had a team ERA of 3.39
– Allowed 14 unearned runs
– Featured a 6.23 ERA in September from the bullpen
– Scored 5.6 runs a game
– Batted .296

At the beginning of the season, the Twins seemed to be extraordinarily lucky, winning games despite not having an equitable advantage in terms of runs scored. Now, they are scoring more runs than their opponents and it is only worked out to a .500 record recently. Of course, that’s a lot better than it seems for many Twins fans, as the losses have been excruciating late inning extravaganzas (as evidenced by the bullpen ERA), and the White Sox have been hanging out just out of our grasp. Also painful have been those losses to inferior opponents.
The fact is, the Twins ARE playing better ball as a team, but luck has turned against them. With Michael Cuddyer coming back, the outfield will improve, with Denard Span shifting to center and Carlos Gomez becoming a back up. We just need to get some better work out of the bullpen, or at the very least, give them more wiggle room.