Great win, but...

Pavano pitched a pretty good game, though he owes at least half of his quality start to the efforts of Denard Span. Spantasm doesn't seem to make as many big plays in center, with both of his highlights coming from right field. His metrics agree, as he saves 13.9 runs above average per 150 games in left, and saves 5.2 runs below average in center. UZR needs large sample sizes to be accurate, but this is the second year in a row that Denard's been below average in center. Now if Span could teach Gomez how to hit, we'd be in business.

The other side of the ball was... frustrating for most of the game. The Twins have a few players with the right approach: work the count, foul off or don't swing at pitcher's pitches. The rest of them hack away. Gomez, Young, Cabrera, and even Cuddyer sometimes throw away at bats, and it loses games. Cuddyer actually connects sometimes, so he's forgiven. And Gomez and Young are, well, young and purportedly still learning. Cabrera is old, and I hope he never returns to Minnesota. Especially because he's become a mentor to Carlos Gomez. Gomez needs a plan at the plate, but Cabrera's seems out of date. Delmon Young has supposedly started listening to Joe Vavra, and maybe he would show it with some playing time. Who knows what's going on with Gomez now, because he struck out on an off-speed pitch a horse's tail wouldn't swing at. Something needs to change, whether it's the coach or the player. Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez need to future-proof the line up for when Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau grow too old or too frustrated to play here.

Lucky for the Twins and their fans, Chris Perez had a bad night, splitting the sweet spot on Cuddy's bat to tie the game. Unlucky for the Twins and their fans, the Tigers managed some similar heroics against the same Jays relievers that stymied the Twins' heart last week. Still up in the air is whether it's good or bad luck that Justin Morneau is gone for the season. He's always been a good soldier, but he's been hurting more than helping for awhile now, since just about the same time that his back pain started. It's another key injury to a season full of them; it's a feat that the Twins have stayed in the race for this long.

Tonight's win was great, and could be the start of a good streak. Of course, the Tigers might be starting a streak of their own.