(Gary Eichten and I are doing Midday from the MPR booth at the State Fair at noon today. We're on 91.1 FM and www.mpr.org on the web. If you hang with us in person, we have amazing prizes if you ask us a question.)

I watched the top of the ninth inning of Sunday's game late last night. Anybody who checked the mlb.com play-by-play knew only that something had happened at third base and the runner was tagged out to end the game. What happened -- the alleged touch between Texas' Michael Young and the third base coach to end the game -- was a bit of good fortune for the Twins, for Matt Capps and for the 3 1/2-game lead that the Twins are taking into this week's games against Kansas City and Cleveland.

For the record, the rule involved comes from Section 7.09 of the baseball rule book: It is interference...when:

(h) In the judgment of the umpire, the base coach at third base, or first base, by touching or holding the runner, physically assists him in returning to or leaving third base or first base.

The Rangers said there was no touch. Young called it "a bad call by a good umpire." (That's an affliction currently known in baseball as "Jim Joyce Syndrome," with Armando Galarraga as Patient Zero) The Twins were happy to escape. Reasonable fans know that bad calls cut both ways and can put together a checklist of verification from the past couple of seasons. Dang you, Phil Cuzzi.

But there were a couple of other things worth noting from the Texas sweep.

Take Jim Thome on Saturday. Watching the first home run sail 2 gazillion feet into the right field bleachers and the follow-up bounce to Jesse Crain in the bullpen was one of those things that made me happy to be a Target Field on Saturday afternoon. After a couple of seasons in which Gardy has pretty much been on automatic when it comes to lineup choices, give him credit for the way he's managed Thome's at-bats this season.

Thome has a team-high 20 home runs in 289 plate-appearances. And as much as it's a rush to see Thome step to the plate four times a game, there's no way that a 50 percent increase in plate appearances would translate into a 50 percent increase in home runs at this stage of his career. Gardy has been disciplined, even when injuries have skinnied his lineup choices.

Including incentives, Thome will make about $1.8 million this season. My hope is that both sides can find a way for Thome to be a Twin for as long as he wants to play baseball -- long enough for Thome to be one of the 60 greatest Twins when they gather the tribe for that ritual in 2020. If Jack Morris can be in that group for one memorable season (ft. Game 7 in 1991) then Thome can be there for hitting his 600th home run in 2011, right?

On the skills front, some of us are quick to mock the notion of the Twins as a team that "does the little things right." That's the fallback position of the national press and, over the years, the Twins have shown a penchant to flub more of the little things that we'd like to see. It's a baseball-wide phenomenon, but it feels more blatant when your team is the poster child for baseball correctness.

That being said, Joe Mauer did a little thing that turned out to be a big thing in Friday's 4-3 victory. When he singled to right-center with one out in the sixth inning, Julio Borbon threw toward third base, trying to get Orlando Hudson. It was a low-chance play, but Borbon threw the ball so that the shortstop couldn't cut off the throw. Mauer saw that unfold quickly enough that he never slow down and took second on the throw.

So the Twins had runners on second and third with one out, and Michael Cuddyer's grounder to second base, which would have almost certainly been an inning-ending double play, became an RBI out instead -- Hudson scoring for a 2-2 tie.

The other thing to note was Matt Tolbert's play at third base. It was great that he had two triples and five RBI filling in for Danny Valencia on Saturday afternoon. But, more than that, Tolbert's presence reminded me of one of the little things that was key to the Twins' final-month rally last season.

Everyone talks about how Orlando Cabrera's play sparked the Twins. Give Cabrera credit for some emotional leadership and some big hits.

What went unnoticed was the fact that Tolbert brought so much more range to third base than the others who played the position, most notably Joe Crede, that Cabrera didn't have to cover nearly as much ground at shortstop. And considering Cabrera made 11 errors in 57 games for the Twins -- one more than he's made in 103 games this season for the Reds -- it was a good thing he didn't have to get to more balls.

Danny Valencia has been a great addition and could well be the Twins' third baseman for a long time. But Tolbert may be the utility player who brings the most to the field of those who would fill the fifth and sixth infielder roles. Look at the numbers and try to argue otherwise.