Here are three thoughts following the Twins' 4-3 win over the Cleveland

STRANGE STORY NO. 1: Trainer Tony Leo and manager Ron Gardenhire went to the mound after Carlos Santana doubled off of Brian Duensing in the eighth. Duensing was OK., he just had a cramp in his elbow. A what? ``He said he does it when he's reading his books and stuff, his elbow starts cramping up," Gardy said as jaws began to drop. ``I have no idea what that means." Duensing got two more outs before being replace by Casey Fien. ``I told him to stop reading books," Gardenhire said.

STRANGE STORY, THE SEQUEL: Theyyyyyyyyrrrrre baaaaack! The midges, those tiny bleeping flies that demanded attention during the playoffs against Joba Chamberlain and the Yankees years ago were back on Tuesday and had Twins players swatting at them for large stretches of the game. Righthander Trevor May, who got the win despite walking four batters over five innings, was particularly bugged by the, er, bugs. May got out of the first and third jam in the fifth - after Rick Anderson went to the mound and apparently barked at him - and fought through the bugs. ``I threw a pitch and it seemed like I got hit with 300 flies," May said. He said he went to the dugout after innings and he was covered with them. "They were in my eyewells and some had dried up and died," he said. ``It was incredible. They were all over my entire neck. It was really, really gross."

NOT A STRANGE STORY, JUST A STRANGE SEASON: Does anyone in the American League not named the Angels want to make the playoffs? No one is taking control. Detroit pulled into a virtual tie with the Royals for first place in the AL Central. Cleveland blew a chance to keep pace against one of the worst AL teams in the Twins. Now Cleveland has been passed by Toronto, and there's a three-way tie for the second wild card spot between KC, Detroit and Seattle (technically two, since whoever is not in first between KC and DET would be the wild card team.) Now Oakland, which beefed up its rotation, will only lead the wild card by 1.5 games after winning tonight. This could be messy at the end of the regular season, and there will be blood.