73

Alert the media! The Twins lost a game last night. It was only the fourth loss in their last 22 contests -- a blistering .818 winning percentage. Obviously, no team can keep that up over the long haul, but to illustrate how good that is, an .818 pace works out to 133 wins in a 162 game season.

The loss (to the Red Sox in Fenway) drops Minnesota 1.5 games behind the idle White Sox and slices the Magic Number to 73. Even though they've been invincible of late, they are "vincible" (why isn't that a word?) on the road, where they play the next six games (two more in Boston and four in Detroit). Away from the Metrodome, the Twinkies have posted a sub-.500 record of 18-21. They're also worse than break-even against left handers, whom they face in three of those games, winning only nine of 22.

The other encouraging stat is that the Sox, who are also much better at the Cell than on the road -- 32-13 vs. 19-24 -- have played five fewer home games than Minnesota. Unfortunately, the Good Guys aren't making up that deficit now. Instead, they're visiting the Royals for three games before traveling to Texas for three right before the All-Star break.

Who knows what all this means? Not The Update. We just want to do whatever it takes to stay in first. Go Sox!