With a 2-1 win today in Oakland, the Twins won their first road series since taking two of three from the Diamondbacks June 7-9. Most importantly, they kept themselves alive in the AL Wild Card race. Other teams in the race had varying success this weekend. While the Yankees swept four games from the Rangers, the Indians were swept in three games by the Devil Rays. Toronto took two of three from Baltimore, the White Sox lost the first two against the Red Sox (today's game has been delayed by the rain), the Angels are closing in on a sweep of the Mariners, and Oakland, of course, lost two of three against Minnesota.

As for today's game, Rich Harden was nearly unhittable. The Twins had only one hit off of Harden today - a third-inning homerun by Michael Ryan. Thank goodness for the Twins, Harden threw 115 pitches in eight innings, so was lifted for All-Star reliever Justin Duchscherer in the ninth. Joe Mauer led off the inning with a double down the line in left and advanced to third on Morneau's groundout to first. Matthew LeCroy drove in the go-ahead run with a single out of shortstop Bobby Crosby's reach up the middle. He was lifted for pinch-runner Jason Bartlett, who was subsequently picked off at first (?!). Lew Ford then singled, but Ryan fouled out to end the inning. Joe Nathan came on and retired Crosby, Eric Chavez, and Dan Johnson in order to pick up his 29th save on the season. Juan Rincon pitched a perfect eighth to get the win and improve to 5-4, while Duchscherer takes the loss and drops to 6-3. Conceding just one run over seven innings, Carlos Silva's ERA dropped to 3.33.

Tomorrow starts the series we've all been waiting for. The Twins haven't played the White Sox since April 19, and are 1-4 against Chicago this year. The Twins open a three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field on the southside tomorrow night as Kyle Lohse (7-11, 4.21 ERA) will face Jose Contreras (7-6, 4.18 ERA). Gametime is at 8:05pm ET/7:05pm CT.

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