I have no concerns about Nathan. He was as dominant as ever before this recent stretch. His numbers for this season are fine. He has the best ERA and second-best WHIP of his career. His K-rate is right in line with last year, which is still better than 1/IP and only slightly down from his first three years as a Twin, and his BB rate is about the same as it has been with the Twins. Same with the HR rate. There's really nothing to indicate further problems. Also, most of the recent blown saves have been tainted by defense or bad luck or the situation. One of them, the run that scored was an inherited base runner who was at second when he came in. Another BS came when the tying run scored on a two-out error in RF by Pridie. Another BS was set up by a Punto error which forced the Twins to go for the double play (allowing the run to score) instead of playing the infield in. And then there was his own error on a bunt play at third that should have been the first out but allowed the tying and winning runs to score.

Is there any wonder the whole bullpen is wondering what will happen next when the have a narrow lead to protect?

There are only two things that keep me from totally giving up on the Twins: 1) They still have three games to play with Chicago; 2) Baseball is a funny game. The Twins could suddenly turn things around, even though they're showing no signs of doing so.

It seems like a long shot, though.

This lack of confidence allows a team like the 2006 Cardinals, at 82-79 -- including just staving off an epic collapse with a 3-9 finish that kept them exactly 1 loss ahead of Houston -- to stumble into the playoffs... and, well, I'm sure you get my point with that alone...

In short, the Twins' chances aren't good... but they aren't nothing. Shoot, they might have at best a 1-in-5 chance at pulling this out... mainly because of those 3 games at home vs. the ChiSox. But a 20 percent chance is not insignificant. I just wouldn't bet much of value on it...

Yeah, this season will likely come down to ruing the abject failures of the bullpen and defense.

I don't know what instills confidence in them for some of you guys, but man, I wish I had it.

As to your point about the team, I honestly don't see them giving up -- they seem to be fighting really hard to me. The only "edge" I see lost for this team might be the relief pitching and defense -- I sense some degree of "oh no I'd better not screw up" rather than "ok time to make this pitch/play" going on. I dunno. It's hard to say and I'm no mind-reader. Pitching is especially difficult to parse because the difference between a reliable reliever throwing strikes and throwing balls (or even worse, gopher balls) can easily be fatigue, slight injury, or just him trimming his fingernails too close...

But I also believe the mental aspect of the game is underrated because of the rise of statistical analysis -- just because it's difficult to discern or measure doesn't mean it's not there.

Oh well, The Baseball Gawdz giveth and they also taketh away. This year, they blessed the Valleys of Minnesota with bountiful runs and an offense flowing with RISP. But verily I say unto you, they also cursed the gloves of the infield, causing them to wither like the wombs of old women while striking down the arms of the bullpen with great vengeance and furious anger.

Obviously the pitching and defense is what totally went south. We haven't seen a Twins team lose like this since the mid 1990s... strange stuff.

I dont even think its starting pitching thats the problem. its the entire bullpen that so smelly that you can see the stink waves permeate out of Metrodome 100 miles away

But he's been looking really bad for weeks now. Is he hurt? Just getting old/tired? I don't know, but if there's one single "Who'd a thunk it?" element to the Twins' slide, it's Nathan's implosion.

No one is perfect... but if he converts just 3 of those 4 blown saves he's coughed up in the last 3 weeks, the Twins own first place -- everything else remaining the same, of couse. I'd say we'd be feeling a lot different about the team...

And yet the offense just keeps humming right along...

The results really aren't all the surprising -- around the ASB wouldn't most of us predicted the team struggling these last few months with such a road-heavy schedule? But what we failed to predict was how the team would go down... I sure thought it was going to be a matter of the offense coming back to earth, especially RISP. Neither has... they're scoring even more runs after the break and they RISP avg has barely budged.

Obviously the pitching and defense is what totally went south. We haven't seen a Twins team lose like this since the mid 1990s... strange stuff.

I don't know if I'd call this a "collapse" -- I think you have to own a pretty good lead for that to be accurate and they've been no more than 1 game up since the ASB -- but it sure stinks. I'd reserve "collapse" for the likes of the Mets, Brewers, and D-Backs...

Joe Nathan: Ill just go ahead and serve this one up and prove them wrong.

I turned the game off about 4 1/2 hours ago when we were down 8-1 in the 4th...

me. That's just awesome.

and now they're telling us that the Twins need to win this game. It must blow to be an Indians fan this season.