Anaheim at Twins. Twins 6, Angels 3.

This is supposed to be the series, the one that tests us. Because while the Twins have a good record, but they can’t possibly be any good. See, we’ve just played in the Central, the bastard child of baseball divisions—baseball tries hard to pretend it loves it as much as the other divisions, but deep down, the Central knows the truth. And while the Twins may be battling with the BoSox for the best record in the League, our record doesn’t actually count.

And the beefed-up Angels, oh, they count. They have Vladimir Guerrero and Bartolo Colon now, and all those other guys who made us feel so bad about ourselves in ‘02 and the rally monkey. Do we have a monkey?

No. No monkey. What we do have is a good, solid ball club that made the Angels looks like bastard children tonight. It’s only the first game of the series, but we played with the big boys—probably because the Twins are big boys, too.

Really. I mean it. We were adorable in ’01, cute in ’02, plucky in ’03, and now, well, now we’re the two-time champs and so far we’re playing like we’re ready for a third. Our key players are playing to their potential right now. Since he came off the DL, Hunter has looked like the star he’s supposed to be. Jacque Jones (and explain to me how he’s expendable again?) is batting .329 and has two walk-off homers. Dougie’s over .300, too, and seems to get a key hit every game. In fact, our starting lineup today had five guys hitting over .300. Corey Koskie seems to have come out the existential funk that plagued him the second half of last year, and today he hit a Hrbek-esque homer into the second deck without ever changing his facial expression.

Koskie pumps up during the off-season.

Pitching hasn’t exactly been the strength this year, though our bullpen is once-again sticking it to naysayers (including Batgirl). But today, Carlos “the Jackal” Silva went into the eighth and showed the rest of the staff how it’s done.

Meanwhile, this is the face (and leg kick) Batgirl sees in her nightmares:

Stay away from Batgirl, Weber. Stay far away.