Getting swept at home by an underachieving, under-.500 team is never good, but it's important to remember that a season as long as this will always have ups and downs in it. The fact that the Twins were coming off their biggest "up" of the season with a series win over the Red Sox just made the sweep at the hands of the Jays that much more frustrating.

It's also important to look at the big picture. In late April, the Twins were at a season-low three games under .500, coming off a losing road trip to Oakland and Texas and were facing the next 15 games against the White Sox (5 games), the Tigers (3), the Red Sox (4) and the Jays (3). That looked like a killer stretch at the time and the Twins came away with a 9-6 record to get to .500. If you had told me before this stretch that the Twins would go 9-6, I would have been thrilled.

How the Twins bounce back from the disappointing sweep will be key. The next stretch ahead looks favorable. The next 13 games are against Colorado (3), Texas (4), Detroit (3), and Kansas City (3). With Detroit struggling once again, every series appears winnable. However, all but the Texas games are on the road, where the Twins have struggled (6-10). They have lost four straight road series. Hopefully, the Twins can shake their road woes and get their record above .500. I would think eight wins in this stretch can be done.

My bad. I thought for sure I heard the ESPN guys say the Twins were bringing in Joe Nathan to face David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. When I looked at several box scores, they all had Jesse Crain finishing the game, so I checked the mlb.com archived video of the game and realized I was mistaken, so Nathan did not get Ramirez to end the game again. Still an amazing thing that it has happened four times in five years.

They met once again. Unbelievable. Joe Nathan got Manny Ramirez to fly out to save another ballgame. This makes two nights in a row and five times in five seasons that Nathan has retired Manny to end a game in a save situation. This was the first time that Manny did not represent the tying or go-ahead run and the first time Manny got the ball out of the infield in those situations.

Craig Monroe had two walks in the game as the DH, which was twice as many as Jason Kubel has taken the whole season as the Twins' DH. Suddenly, it doesn't look so silly for Monroe to start over Kubel at DH on Opening Day. We'll probably be seeing a lot of Monroe until Kubel starts to hit anywhere close to what he did the second half of last season. Of course, after Delmon hurt his ankle last night, we could be seeing a lot of both players if Delmon has to go on the DL.

After scoring 25 runs in four games against the defending WS champs, the Twins are now eighth in runs per game. The Twins have moved ahead of the Yankees and Cleveland in average runs per game. All this despite Kubel hitting horribly, Lamb starting out horribly and improving to disappointing, and Delmon showing no power whatsoever. Plus, Cuddyer was on the DL for a while and hasn't done a whole lot this season either. It would seem that the Twins still have room for improvement and could have an above-average offense for the first time since 2002.

The Twins now start a series with Toronto, which is missing Vernon Wells (DL) and Frank Thomas (released) and has shown a horrible offense. Only the Royals have scored less runs in the AL. The Blue Jays are coming off a doubleheader yesterday in which they went 18 scoreless innings before scoring three runs in the 10th inning of Game 2 to split the two games. With the Indians splitting the DH and the White Sox getting pounded by the Angels, the Twins enter tonight's game with a 1 1/2-game lead, which of course guarantees at least one more day all alone in first place.

The Blue Jays are third in the AL in runs allowed and the Twins will face Roy Halladay, who is 6-0 with a 2.66 ERA against the Twins in his career, in Game 2.

Did you get the feeling that you had seen this situation before? Probably because you have been paying attention. This makes three straight seasons that Joe Nathan has saved a game by getting Manny Ramirez for the final out with him representing the tying or go-ahead run and this was the fourth time in five seasons that he has done that.

Manny is known as one of the more clutch hitters and should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when his time comes, so holding him to 0-for-4 with 2 Ks and a GIDP with the game on the line shows what a great closer that Nathan is. But this seems truly bizarre that this batter-pitcher matchup would happen for the final out of the game so many times for teams that don't face each other that often, usually 6-9 times a season.

I was at the game in 2006 and I remember the game last year that reminded me of the game I went to and of course this game reminded me of those two, which is why I was able to look up this stuff. In the game I went to in 2006, Nathan also struck out Manny in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and no outs in a 4-0 game, so he twice struck out Manny when he represented the tying run. The two runs he allowed tonight was just the second and third he has given up to the Red Sox in his career (13 2/3 innings).

This is just another example of why baseball is such an amazing game.

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