JUNE 2, 2009 -- MINNESOTA 4, CLEVELAND 3

Joe Mauer hits another home run and drives in three runs, and Kevin Slowey improves to 8-1 on the season, as the Twins narrowly defeat the lowly Indians at the Metrodome by a score of 4-3. Mauer wasn't retired on Tuesday, as he went 3-3 against Cleveland starter David Huff and the bullpen. The Twins were comfortably ahead 4-0 in the seventh before Slowey sputtered and the bullpen nearly gave it up. In a shocking move, Ron Gardenhire did the unthinkable -- he brought in Joe Nathan in the eighth inning! Happy day! I was sure that the move was going to be Jesse Crain and the bullpen horror show would have continued, as Crain undoubtedly would have lost the game for the Twins. Not surprisingly, Nathan shut the door on the Tribe in the eighth and pitched a clean ninth for his tenth save in twelve tries.

Brendan Harris made a very solid defensive play at shortstop and collected two hits, proving once again why he is far and away the better all-around option at shortstop. Here's a guy who can hit fifth in your lineup, like he did Tuesday, and produce offensively (he went 2 for 4) while not being a liability in the field. Though his range is limited compared to Nick Punto, Harris makes up for it at the plate, certainly something that Punto (who I wish the Twins could DH for) cannot accomplish. And, as we saw on Tuesday, Harris is definitely capable of playing shortstop well. Alas, we better enjoy this while we can, because once Nick Punto is ready to play, you can guarantee that his .501 OPS will go right back into the everyday lineup. This is Ron Gardenhire we're talking about -- a scrappy, talent-deficient utility infielder who never got to start everyday when he played for the Mets in the early '80s. He's getting his comeuppance by letting Punto -- a player that no doubt reminds Gardenhire of himself -- start everyday, and by extension, he loses 4-5 games because of that inane decision.

Slowey again pitched good enough and had the run support to move to a somewhat deceiving 8-1 on the season. His last five starts have been really strong, and it always helps when the Twins average over six runs when Slowey is on the mound. We have to remember that Livan Hernandez started last season 6-1, and he wasn't with the team by the time August rolled around, to there's plenty of time for Slowey to fall down to earth (It's worth mentioning that Livan is 4-1 with a 4.33 ERA as the fifth starter for the Mets this year). But I had predicted a good season from Slowey before the year started, thinking he'd blossom into a 15-17 game winner this season. His first month and a half was only decent -- he was 5-1 but had an ERA of 4.50 in mid-May. But he's pitched well of late, and if he wins a few more games, he might be in line for an All-Star appearance. Hell, if he's 12-1 at the All-Star break (hypothetically speaking, of course) he may start the All-Star Game.

The bottom of the order continues to be the Achilles heel for the team. Joe Crede, who seems to get hurt every other day now, was out of the lineup again on Tuesday and Brian Buscher and his .176 average got the start at third. Delmon Young has numbers that suggest a certain Puntoesque Patheticness (a dreadful .536 OPS), and he had the collar again on Tuesday, going 0-4 with two strikeouts. Since returning from the "family emergency list" on May 24, Young has gone an amazing 3 for 30 with seventeen freaking strikeouts!!! There hasn't been a game that Young hasn't struck out at least once, and he's had three games which he's struck out three times in a game. When I heard Young's name being shopped in the offseason I was against that, as I thought that Young would bounce back from a dreadful 2008 campaign, but frankly it's stupid that the Twins didn't trade him. Right now I don't think the Twins could get anything for Young, certainly not the Jerrod Washburn-Jeff Clement package that they were intent on getting from the Mariners.

Something has got to be done with Young, who obviously isn't clicking here in Minnesota. It just goes to show how pathetic the Twins' hitting philosophies are and why homegrown players are the only hope for the Twins. It happened with Rondell White, Mike Lamb, Craig Monroe, and now Delmon Young -- they acquire these guys and then Joe Vavra and Ron Gardenhire try to make them into slap hitters. The stress that they put on "going the other way" with the pitch goes against these hitters' natural instincts, and especially with guys like White, Lamb, and Monroe, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. If you looked at those guys' numbers before they came to the Twins, it was apparent that these guys can hit -- why don't you just let them do what has made them successful to this point? Young is perhaps the one turnaround project that has worked the least; he's taken their advice to an extreme and has turned into a singles hitter at best. On the season, Young has two extra base hits and 24 singles. More than anything, Young needs to be himself, and I don't think that's going to be in a Twins uniform. Mark my words: once the Twins trade this guy, he will explode into a great offensive player, a la David Ortiz when he went to the Red Sox. The Twins seem to have a strange avocation to turning big, muscular, power-hitting behemoths into slap hitters; Ortiz is the shining example of what kind of player the Twins were missing out on.

Anthony Swarzak goes tonight for the Twins against Cleveland ace Cliff Lee, who has been a tough-luck loser all season long for the Tribe. Expect a low-scoring affair tonight.