Tampa Bay at Twins. Tampa Bay 5, Twins 2

There was a point in today's game when it looked like things were going to really turn around for our boys. It wasn't Lew Ford's lead-off homerun, though that was certainly fun as Ford is so much more adorable when he's hitting homers. (Not that trying to tag-up on a two-out fly ball yesterday wasn't adorable in its own special kind of way.) No, the point was in the 4th inning, when Matty "Go Boom" LeCroy hit a ball that would have gone into the outfield had it not hit pitcher Mark Hendrickson square in the foot. Such has been the fate of our balls lately (just ask Torii Hunter, who seems to be lining directly to somebody each and every at bat), but this time the pitcher fumbled the play and LeCroy still made it to first. Anytime you hear the phrase, "Matt LeCroy has an infield single," you know things are going right for your team.

Or so I thought. Now, I've been speaking a lot of fairies and curses and some such; and I don't mean to imply that we're not playing craptacular baseball right now on our own right, god bless us. But sometimes in baseball, Lady Luck is on your side, and sometimes, well, she sits behind the dugout with her legs splayed throwing peanuts at you and calling you a loser, all the while wearing a Bitch Sox MLB Authentic Jersey with Frank Thomas's number on it. Lately, the craptacularness and the vicious betrayal of Lady Luck has gone hand in hand, all meaning we've given the freakin' Tampa Bay Devil Rays their 4th, 5th, and 6th road win of the season.

Not that Lady Luck threw Aubrey Huff a fastball down the middle with two outs and two on in the sixth. That was Johan Santana, who'd been having a terrific game before that pitch. After walking Tino Martinez in the second, he retired seven in a row—ten if you count a double play in the fifth that followed a lead-off walk. For five innings, we had Johan back in form today, and for five innings we looked like the Twins again.

But then there was that pitch, and that very hard hit homerun, and once again we couldn't do anything after that. I don't know why the Twins aren't hitting. A slump perpetuates itself, I know that. Every player is swinging for the fences, forgetting to take pitches, and is acting like an emotional wreck at the plate. We're not emotional wrecks; we're Minnesota Twins. We’re a little sensitive, but in a huggable, we-hit-a-lot-of-doubles kind of way. And we will remember that. I promise. It just might take a little luck.