Mike Pelfrey's masterpiece keeps Twins in first place

For about 100 feet, it looked as if Ryan Braun had spoiled Mike Pelfrey's day, made a mockery of Paul Molitor's trust in his righthander, and rallied the Brewers, perhaps, to a deflating sweep of the Twins.

But at that 101st foot, Eduardo Nunez leaped into the air, stretched his glove as high as he could reach, and speared Braun's hot smash, snuffing out Milwaukee's best chance to deface Pelfrey's masterpiece. The last (and hardest-hit) of the 24 outs Pelfrey recorded kept the Brewers off the board and preserved a 2-0 Twins victory Sunday at Target Field, one that kept them in first place on the eve of a showdown with the second-place Royals.

"Today was a much-needed win," Brian Dozier said, "to give us a little momentum."

They haven't needed any in at least five years, but this week brings something unusual, something fun, if undoubtedly premature. The Twins will embark on a little pennant race dress rehearsal, going 1-on-1 with their closest pursuers — the defending AL champions are one game back — and if nobody is clinching anything with more than 100 games still to play, it can't hurt to preview the play before it reaches Broadway.

"Not many of these guys have played a series against a team you're relatively close to at the top of the standings. These are games that help — you get a feel for where you're at with yourself, how you control your emotion, can you play when there's maybe a little bit more at stake," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "It will change from July to August to September. But for now, it's got to be beneficial to play in games that have a little bit more [attention], even if it is June."

Anyway, it's not so much the consequences of this battle that matter; it's the novelty of it. Players might not check standings regularly, but fans do, and it's been a long time since Twins fans have been able to size up an actual rival on equal footing.

"It's good for the fans. It should be a fun series, and it's nice to be in front," said Phil Hughes, who will start Monday's series opener. "But we play these guys 19 times. I'd like to give you a great line about how it's pennant-race time, how we're thinking playoffs, but we'll see these guys a lot more."

Still, these games count, too.

"It's an important series coming up," Pelfrey said. "Maybe as important as it gets in June."

Which would have been a crazier prediction last winter: That the Twins would play a June series with the AL Central lead at stake? Or that they would wish Pelfrey was pitching in it?

Both are true after Pelfrey gave up one, and only one, hit in each of his eight innings, his longest stint with the Twins.

"Braun got to second [after a sixth-inning double], and said, 'Your boy Pel's nasty today. I can't see his two-seamer,' " Dozier said. "It's got late life, and he's pumping it 95 [mph], 96."

It all could have unraveled in the eighth, though, when Jonathan Lucroy blooped a two-out single to right, bringing Braun, the former NL MVP. Molitor hopped out of the dugout, but not to remove Pelfrey, despite his 104 pitches.

"I didn't know what he was thinking," Pelfrey said. "I wasn't going to go meet him halfway and give him the ball."

Molitor hadn't made up his mind.

"I told him, 'I want you to try to get this guy out," and offered his suggestion for how to pitch Braun, Molitor said. "He said, 'Absolutely, let's go for it.' You kind of look for reaction, and it was all positive, so it made the decision easy."

Pelfrey put his first pitch, a 93-mph split-fingered fastball, about three inches inside, and Braun pounced on it, rocketing a screamer down the third-base line — and into Nunez's glove.

The kind of play a first-place team makes. The kind the Royals make. Now the Twins get a chance to start proving they deserve that label, too.

"I think we'll be excited when they come into town, playing a team we're hopefully going to stay in contention with," Molitor said. "Tomorrow night will be fun."