There have been a handful of times in the past few years when Kyle Lohse could be counted upon to blow a lead in the time, say, that it took to stop at the Brooklyn Park Culver's after one of YoungRD's soccer games. I believe that very thing happened twice. And there were other times when it seemed like a stop at Home Depot or Whole Foods or Target coincided with Kyle managing to suck the life out a Twins lead. So I reached the point last season where I thought I could best help Kyle by keeping my eyes and ears glued to the game when he was pitching. Under those circumstances, he didn't seem to suck as badly -- or as dramatically. Alas, he still usually sucked.

Eventually, I realized that we needed to build more trust. I needed to get on with my life when Kyle was on the mound. And, apparently, Kyle has decided that it's better not to suck. This is a recent phenomenon on his part -- covering his last four starts, including Saturday's when he yielded only one run in seven innings and looked flat-out nasty from time to time to time to time in the 4-3 victory over Toronto.

For my part, I stopped at Cub on the way home from the gym with the score 2-1. And, lo and behold, when I returned Castro and Stewart had homered yet again and the Twins were up 4-1. The Big Yummy Muffins will taste even better tomorrow morning.

Now consider this: In those 4 starts, Kyle has given up 6 earned runs in 25 1/3 innings. In his 4 April starts, he gave up 16 in 21 2/3 innings. No wonder we spent April wondering whether Old Man Mulholland would make a better fifth starter. Or young Baker or Gassner at Triple-A. Or maybe Bert could come down from the TV booth every fifth day... or LaTroy Hawkins would emerge from his personal hell... or, or, or. We were getting that impatient, and understandibly so.

But now, whatever Kyle has done, it has made him quite the hot pitcher. And for this, after all the barbs we've thrown this way and all the lousy pitches he's thrown our way, we must commend his recovery by anointing Kyle Lohse as Boyfriend of the Day.

Field/Readers 9, Lewww/Jeb 6, Stewie/Sooz 6, Justin/Goober 5, Joe/Batgirl 2.