Last night Livan Hernandez improved to 6-1 on the season with a solid pitching performance.  After an unsettling first inning where Manny being Manny hit his 498th career homerun, the Twins were able to get out of the inning only surrendering 3 runs.  After the first inning, Livan had much better control over his pitches.  He continued to use his ability to control the strike zone by painting the corners and using his off-speed pitches.  The Sox were off balance as a result for the rest of the game.  Livan pitched 6 innings while giving up just the three runs in the first.  He scattered 10 hits and allowed the Twins to scratch their way back in the game.  Unlike the game on Mothers Day, the Twins used small ball to score their 7 runs.  Only one of their hits was an extra base hit.  That was a double by Craig Monroe in the fifth inning. 

Last night, Livan stole the show with his ability to keep the score down after the horrible first inning.  The Twins offense has been the real story over the last two weeks.  The key change in the offense has been the emergence of their newly acquired players. 

Craig Monroe is batting .333 (10-for-30) with two doubles, three homers and nine rbi in his last nine games…he has six rbi in his past two games and collected his fourth multi-rbi game of the season.

Delmon Young has hit safely in six of his last seven games, hitting .348 (8-for-23) in that span.

Mike Lamb finished the series with five hits in 12 at-bats with four rbi.  Over the last 12 games her is hitting .316 (12-for-38) with seven rbi.

In order for the Twins to compete over the full season, it will be very important to have good pitching and timely hitting.  May has been a great month as a result of the team finally starting to gel. 

While the Twins have problem areas, their early season success (and equal failure by teams like Cleveland and Detroit) give me optimism that they can continue to win games and be competitive with any team in the American League.