1:35DUFFEY IS DEALING: It's official. Tyler Duffey is the Twins' best starter right now, and they can't take him out of the rotation. On Sunday. he shut out an Angels offense other Twins pitchers have struggled with and made it look relatively easy. He's 4-1 with a 3.15 ERA in eight starts. Over his last three starts, he's 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA. Since his disastrous two-inning debut in Toronto on Aug. 4. Duffey is 4-0, 2.06 in seven starts, making him their most effective starter during this postseason push. And he has not given up a home run in four starts, a span of 114 batters going back to Aug. 26, when Tampa Bay's Daniel Nava took him deep. He will remain in the rotation for now, as the Twins will ignore the 183.2 innings he's thrown this season.
SANO ON THE BASES: The Twins made another baserunning mistake on Sunday. Eduardo Escobar singled with Torii Hunter on first and Miguel Sano on second in the fifth. Sano got a late read on the ball and didn't take off right away. Third base coach Gene Glynn started to wave him home but quickly threw up the stop sign when he saw Sano arriving at the bag late. Hunter read the ball all the way and rounded second, thinking Sano was going to score. Sano saw Hunter heading to third, took off for home, and ended up in a rundown. ``Not one of our finest moments," Molitor said. Molitor also said that a runner, in this case Hunter, can not assume that another runner gets the same read on a ball that he does.
MAUER'S STREAK: Joe Mauer has now reached base in 40 straight games, two shy of Bob Allison's club record set in 1961. It's currently the longest active streak in the majors and fourth longest in the league this season. But...he entered today batting just .268 over his previous 39 games with a .364 on base percentage. And now he has 42 hits in those 40 games. One was a home run today, though, estimated at 419 feet.
