RD is feeling reasonably good about life and baseball right now, despite Roy Halliday's 2-infield-hit shutout this afternoon. The Bitch Sox game is on in the background and they're losing 11-4 to Texas in the 8th -- no, make that 12-4! -- and the Japanese guy on the mound is looking a little bit puzzled and AJ Pierzynski is behind the plate remembering when he used to watch the B-Sox do such things when he was in the Twins dugout. Balls are evading outfielders. Infielders are running into each other. Hurry back, Frank Thomas!

Now, RD likes stats about as much as most sass-o-holics, but he feels compelled to point out the following: If the Twins win 2 of every 3 games for the rest of the season -- as they did this weekend in Toronto -- they will finish the season with a 104-58 record. That should be good enough for our flawed-more-than-we-want-to-admit Minnesota 9 to overtake the hottest-topic-among-baseball-media Chicagoans and keep Ozzie Guillen from being named Manager of the Millenium with 995 years still remaining. For all the locals have struggled, Batgirl's team is only 3 1/2 games out of first place in the AL Central with 69.753 percent of the season still to play.

This weekend's games were more about performance than excitement. Cy Young 2004 (El Presidente) dispatched the Jays without difficulty on Friday night and Halladay (CY2003) had even less trouble with the Twins this afternoon. In the middle game, Kyle Lohse (Yes, Kyle Lohse) pitched comfortably with an uncomfortably small lead, an afternoon in which the Jays didn't threaten until Joe Nathan came in to pitch the 9th.

RD has a theory to share about the Nathenest of Joes troublesome 9th on Saturday and JC Romero's poopy 8th this afternoon, during which the Jays increased their lead from 2-0 to 4-0 and JC's glove was clocked at 93, albeit with horrible location, when he hurled it against the dugout wall. It was obvious to RD that both were simply trying to make like LaTroy Hawkins, on whom the Cubs gave up and traded to the Giants this weekend for a couple of minor leaguers. Remember when we were sad that he got away?

For his part, RD is confident that Joe will return to his effective self by Tuesday's resumption of play and hopeful that JC's ass-armed antics will cease before we send out a search party for CJ Nitkowski.

***The B-Sox just lost -- the losing pitcher: Jon (I Was Johan Santana For 6 Weeks) Garland.***

Without a game to distract us on Memorial Day, RD figured he'd offer up some places on the Internet where you might run into him and his fellow web travelers. A caution: Some don't have much, if anything, to do with baseball.

http://www.rakemag.com/today/warningtrack/archive/2005/05/objects_in_the.asp#comments -- The insightful Twin Cities baseball guy, Brad Zellar, tells the story of former pitching coach Dick Such and, without naming names, begs a question about batting coach Scott Ullger.

http://www.latroyhawkinssucks.com/ -- This is what happens to athletes in the third millenium when much is expected and little is delivered.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5429036.html -- Terry Collins' wonderfully written story about graduation day at Red Lake has absolutely nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with putting things in context. RD will be rooting for the youngsters in this story as hard as he roots for the Twins.

http://dooce.com -- This blog is a favorite of RD's Lady -- Sweet-n-Sassy -- and chronicles the daily adventures of a recovering Mormon. Lots and lots and lots of sass.

Speaking of sass, Batgirl's mission to France is reportedly scheduled to end in time for her to resume filling this space on Tuesday. Thanks for listening. Have a peaceful holiday.

RD, out.