It's a pretty hollow punch line, but the reason that Monday was the "day for accolades" came true. Today is the day after winning streak ended. Tampa Bay's rookie starter -- Strasburg lite, with a slow curve -- was a bit better than Pavano, and the Rays got a key hit while the Twins couldn't take advantage of a few chances. Some shaky defense didn't help the Twins, either.

All in all, with Jeremy Hellickson making his major league debut, closer Rafael Soriano unavailable after pitching all weekend against the Yankees and Pavano going for the Twins, it looked like winning No. 9 in a row was a reasonable expectation.

Didn't happen. Three more tries starting tonight.

But that's all for now.

You guys are all preoccupied with Brett Favre, anyway. Right?