The Surging Twins / HAHA GIANTS!

Eight runs off Madison Bumgarner before the first out was recorded. Giants down 8-0 after one inning. Yeeeha! That would really be the perfect ending to a perfect Carrie Jacobs Bond day. But it can't be, since the Dodgers and Tigers play each other. Someone has to lose.

The Twins' 9-2 win is the story. Not the Pretenders' feeble attempts at winning a baseball game. Closest they got was Miguel Cabrera pinch-hitting in the fifth, with the bases loaded, down 3-1. A well-placed hit would have turned the game around. But Teddy Bear grounded into a double play and ... well, that was that. A two-run blast by Andre Ethier, 20 rows of empty seats up in the right field pavilion, also helped enhance tonight's Dodger Stadium fan experience.

Ron Gardenhire's charges have won 15 of their last 17, are only seven games under (32-39), and have climbed out of last place in the AL Central. Not that long ago, it seems, they were twenty under, when your baseball blogger posted the kick-em-while-they're-down post. He did so because a Gardenhire-managed team is never down for very long. They aren't now, and have a knack for getting hot after the All-Star break. A fact impressed that hard way into the minds of Pretenders fans.