Twins once again find ways to win

Joe Nathan was one of three Twins to make the American League All-Star team this season. John Iacono/SI

There comes a time in every baseball season when surprises are no longer surprises. If something caught you off guard in April or in May, and what was going on way back then is still going on now ... well, you need to drop the whole wide-eyed-in-shock spiel. It's not very becoming.

The Twins are hanging around the lead in the American League Central, just where they've been for most of the season, and by now that shouldn't be a stunner to anyone. Never more than 1 1/2 games ahead and only briefly 6 1/2 games behind, the young, largely untested but always entertaining Twins have 100 games of proof that they're for real. They enter play Wednesday just 1 1/2 games in back of the first-place White Sox.

Yet you still doubt, don't you? You still wonder. Who are these kids? How are they winning?

Joe Nathan, one of the Twins' few recognizable players -- to the majority of fans outside of the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area, anyway -- smiles a tight little smile and gives you a look that says, in effect, "you silly, silly person." The Twins' closer has heard the doubts since spring training. But he knew back then that the Twins were legit.

"That's the reason I signed with them. I thought we could compete," Nathan said recently. "I knew who we lost [Johan Santana, Torii Hunter, Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett], but I also saw who we gained [Carlos Gomez, Delmon Young, Livan Hernandez]. I saw that our lineup may be one of the better lineups that we've had since I've been here. I thought if we could produce some runs out there and continue to pitch and play defense like we have been since I've been here, we're going to be tough to contend with."

Because Nathan knows more baseball than your average Joe, it turned out he was right on the money. In his case, the money was a four-year, $47 million extension that he signed after Santana, their former ace, was traded to the Mets and franchise icon Hunter left for a big free-agent contract with the Angels.

Without Santana and Hunter, few figured that the Twins could get anywhere close in a division that included the powerhouse Tigers, the defending champion Indians and the White Sox. The Tigers, though, imploded almost immediately and have struggled to get back near .500. The Indians fell quickly out of contention and are trading spots with the Royals in the division cellar, leaving the Twins and White Sox to duke it out. The Twins have been sitting in second place in the Central every day since May 14.

The Twins hold their own with the good teams (34-33 against .500 or better teams) and crush the bad ones (24-12 against sub-.500). But they are just 4-7 against the White Sox, and the last time the two teams played, in a series in Chicago in early June, the Sox swept the four game set, outscoring the Twins, 40-14, to push Minnesota 6 1/2 games back.

The Twins have gone 24-12 since then, the best record in baseball.