Here are three thoughts following the Twins 3-2 loss to Oakland
THE TIMING OF THIS PROBABLY ISN'T GOOD BUT....:The Twins, to steal a term from Dan Barreiro, are becoming plucky. They were given a break in the ninth when Brett Lawrie pressed X-2 on his PlayStation and attempted a spinning throw to first on Brian Dozier's grounder. Suddenly, the Twins put together some good at-bats. Mauer came through with a booming RBI double and Miguel Sano, once again, showed he can step up in big moments. This would have been their third clutch win in a little over a week, but things went haywire in the bottom of the inning. But if the Twins can bunch good at-bats like those late in games, they will have a few more comeback wins this season. That all said, it's too bad they didn't get a big hit in the first inning or the entire scope of the game could have changed.
WHY NO REPLAY?: Billy Burns stole third base in the tenth before scoring the winning run. It looked like the play was close and deserved a replay moment. I thought Burns was safe, but I still was surprised how quickly the Twins moved on from that play. But manager Paul Molitor said the message he received from replay coordinator Sean Harlin was quick and clear. ``The faster I get an answer," Molitor said, ``the more I believe it."
SUZUKI ON THE TWITTER HOT SEAT?: Twitter le t Kurt Suzuki have it pretty good tonight for not throwing out baserunners and providing little offense. There was a stat on ESPN recently that said he was one of the worst pitch-framers in the game. Then on Saturday a pitch from Glen Perkins bounces away from him, allowing Lawrie to advance to second and eventually score. Many of you claimed that he should have controlled the ball better. I missed the replay, so I can't offer an opinion. But Perkins took the blame. ``No, he got on first and I tried to do not a slidestep but kind of in between what I would do with nobody on and a slidestep and came up short, caught my cleat on the mound and yanked it," Perkins said. ``Usually when I miss with the fastball I miss in or I miss up. I spiked a heater off the dirt. It's coming in at 90 mph. I don't expect him to block that. There's just not enough time for him to do anything. I usually command the fastball pretty well and I missed that one. It was a crappy time to miss a spot. Just a bad time."
