The events of the past few seasons have conditioned us to react with genuine surprise anytime the Twins even manage to win a game. After two months of this season, that feeling has at least somewhat faded. It's June 5. The Twins are 11-10 against their own division. They are 15-10 against the AL East, having taken 2 of 3 games in every series against those foes. They ran into some buzz saws against Oakland, San Francisco and L.A. (Dodgers), when slumps plus rough pitching matchups resulted in a combined 0-9 record. But they endured a tough early schedule and uneven play to arrive at this point 28-29.
Is it time to adjust our expectations? Have the Twins played decently enough for long enough that we should come to expect a win every other night? Is the starting pitching -- with a respectable 4.22 ERA since May 5, coinciding with Mike Pelfrey's trip to the DL -- showing us enough now that a three-game winning streak is just as likely as a three-game losing streak?
Can we glean enough from a small sample size this season plus some previous accomplishments to believe that the offense, with Josh Willingham and Oswaldo Arcia in the middle of the lineup, can score enough runs?
Is there any way the Twins could actually contend? (OK, that one might be a stretch).
But honestly: Where are your expectations now, and where should they be?
