Patrick Reusse: Twins are forced to deal in the now

The Chicago White Sox played an early game in Yankee Stadium on Saturday. They managed one hit, a Jim Thome double, off the Yankees' devastating big-market tandem of Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin and lost 10-0.

Detroit had a late-afternoon slot and was at home against Tampa Bay. The Rays had been reminded a day earlier that winning costs too much when lefthander Scott Kazmir was traded to the Angels. No matter. The Tigers managed six singles and lost 3-1.

The Twins had opportunity twisting through the Dome's revolving doors on Saturday evening. They responded with three singles, a scratch double and the first shutout loss since May 5 -- 3-0 to the Texas Rangers.

Thus, the White Sox, the Twins and the Tigers, the Three Stooges of the American League Central race, managed as they are by Ozzie, Gardy and Smoky, had charged onto big-league ballfields and combined for one run, 11 hits and 13 total bases in 27 half-innings on Saturday.

This left things as they were -- the Tigers by 4 1/2 games over the Twins and five ahead of the Mighty Whiteys.

The guy we should feel sorry for in all of this is Bill Smith, the Twins general manager. He had a team that's not .500 (64-65) and by all rights should have spent the past few weeks moving a couple of veterans and adding some warm bodies to the minor league workforce.

Unfortunately for Smith, he has been victimized by geography. The Twins have been forced to act as shoppers rather than being able to give in to their mediocrity and spend the last one-third of the schedule reconnoitering for next spring.

Those are the deficits a team is supposed to face when it has five incumbent starters ages 24 to 27 to open a new season, they all go backwards and three do so disastrously.

This is the also-ran status a team should attain when the solid middle of its 2008 infield becomes a vacuum, when the slugger brought in to fill third base has the same number of injuries as home runs, and it turns out you have one too few quality outfielders rather than one too many.

Back in February, it was accepted as fact that the Twins' No. 1 problem for 2009 would be the bullpen. Six months later, they found veteran assistance with righthander Jon Rauch and lefthander Ron Mahay.

They arrived on Saturday, the second and third pitchers added this month following the July 31 trade for shortstop Orlando Cabrera.

Smith should have been in a similar mode to Cleveland's Mark Shapiro -- looking to the future rather than the present -- on that date, which was the nonwaiver trade deadline.

Still, all it would have taken was a nice two-week hot streak from the Tigers or the White Sox, and the Twins could have started auditions for 2010.

There was no such streak. The Tigers and White Sox remained in neutral. Smith was trapped. He had to try.

First, the Twins brought in Cabrera from Oakland for infielder Tyler Ladendorf, a second-round draft choice in 2008. Cabrera helped immediately.

A week later, Smith acquired starter Carl Pavano from Cleveland for a player that turned out to be pitcher Yohan Pino. Pavano helped immediately.

The Twins started a road trip in mid-August that could have buried them. They went 5-2, then came home to win another series.

Mahay came as a free agent. Arizona will get a prospect for Rauch, and perhaps one rated higher than Ladendorf (No. 2s are supposed to become big-leaguers) or Pino (projected as a big-league starter).

Poor Mr. Smith ... stuck raiding his farm system to assist a mediocre ballclub. Life could've been so much easier without the generosity of geography.