Sunday Insider: Short hops

The Twins and Indians entered this weekend's series in Cleveland with virtually identical results over the past 30 seasons, to an amazing degree. According to STATS Inc., the cumulative stats for each team since 1983, through Thursday:

TwinsClev.

Head-to-head wins222222

Overall wins2,3922,393

Overall losses2,4692,469

Batting average.269.269

ERA4.454.44

AL pennants 22

World Series titles2 0

The Twins didn't mind seeing Jose Valverde designated for assignment by Detroit. Of the 38 pitchers who have recorded 10 or more saves against the Twins, Valverde was one of the five most dominant, as gauged by ERA. The all-time leader in saves vs. the Twins, by the way, is Mariano Rivera, whose 33 regular-season saves (four blown) combined with a 1.30 ERA would rank sixth on this list.

ERASavesBlown

Troy Percival0.38234

Jose Valverde0.54161

Francisco Rodriguez1.10142