Damn, Red Sox!

In the past six years the Boston Red Sox have gone 563-409 and compiled a .579 winning percentage. They have won the American League East once but have won two World Series titles and appeared in three American League Championships Series.

In that same time the Minnesota Twins have gone 534-437 and compiled a .550 winning percentage. They have won four division championships, but appeared in only one American League Championship series and have gone 6-15 in 21 playoff games.Since 2002 Boston has become the toast of baseball, they are most certainly the team to of this decade, and with their amazing comeback against the New York Yankees in 2004, it would take a miracle to dethrone them of that title.

The Twins in that time have had amazing stretches of baseball, including an unheard of stretch of play in 2006, going 71-30 after a slow start to win the AL Central championship on the last day of the season. But continuous disappointments in the post season, and the departure of star players have made this decade a gift and a curse for Twins fans.

Still, since 2002 the Twins have played the Red Sox as well as any team in the league with a 21-16 record over those six years.There are also the side stories of the Twins release of David Ortiz and his turning into a modern day Paul Revere in Boston. Then this winter there was the talk of a potential blockbuster trade that would have sent Johan Santana to Boston for a number of young Red Sox prospects.

The trade never happened and Boston is probably happy to still have their young stars and their 22-14 record and first place position in the AL East. They are a solid team from top to bottom even with David Ortiz in an early season slump. The mix of youth and experience has also served the team well as young pitchers Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz have helped to fill the innings void of injured Curt Schilling.

The Twins are also most likely happy they weren’t after the more risky trade with the Mets that has brought in one of the most exciting players in Major League Baseball this year, in Carlos Gomez - who has made no one forget about Johan Santana but has made a lot of people forget about Torii Hunter and Jacoby Ellsbury.

Boston is surely the more well-rounded team but the Twins remain competitive in the Central and this series should be another in a long line of challenges for the Twins to prove that they are anything more than an inconsistent team.

Coming off a difficult loss on Thursday the Twins are only one game above .500 and have a one game lead in the division. Lets hope that success against Boston continues.