After the first two games of the weekend’s Twins-Tigers series, the rampant excitement of Minnesota’s prospects for closing in on Detriot in the AL central had all but washed away. Eight innings into today’s game, you probably could’ve heard crickets chirping in certain parts of the Metrodome. But all that would soon change with the one ultra-convenient breakdown by Detriot’s Jeremy Bonderman.

To provide a bit of context around what the situation was pre-mental lapse, one would only need to look at the box score. Bonderman had allowed merely one hit through seven innings and the Tigers were up 3-0 after an uncharacteristically shaky 5 1/3 inning performance from Johan Santana. But somewhere in between the Twins coming back to the dugout and Justin Morneau walking to the plate in the bottom of the eighth, Lady Luck entered the building. With a quick spurt of hits and a series of fielding errors, the Twins were suddenly down only a run with the bases loaded. Then it happened. Jeremy Bonderman drew his hand away from his glove to signal something to the catcher, foolishly overlooking the fact that his feet were still planted on the rubber of the mound. That simple balk scored a run for the Twins, negated seven innings of commanding performance, and set the stage for some offensive fireworks. The damage by the end of the inning? Six runs and a battered ego. Twins win 6-4.

In the end the Twins may have pulled out only one win in a crucial three game series with the division leader, but given the way their pendulum may have swung if they had been swept, it’s one that the team and its faithful should be incredibly grateful for.

The Brewers weekend? Well, that new Chorizo guy debuting in the sausage races was pretty exciting stuff. I kid, I kid. They had a couple big wins against the Reds with some solid contributions from the guys acquired in the Carlos Lee trade.