Besides the score of Thursday's game, the biggest thing for the Twins as the crucial road trip began was the two shutout inning of relief work from Matt Guerrier, and the second biggest was the shutout inning from Jesse Crain.

The cliche about a chain being only as strong as its weakest link isn't perfectly applicable to bullpens. Guerrier and Crain are expected be bear more of the weight put on the bullpen chain, and of late they've not handled the workload well. The Twins definitely needed to see them come through against the Angels.

Another noteworthy development: Twice the Angels intentionally walked Mauer to have a right-hander pitch to Morneau, and both times it worked perfectly. The first time Mornaeu bounced into an inning-ended doulbe play, the second time he struck out. It makes me wonder if the Angels see something, a way to attack Morneau. They're definitely not going to let Mauer beat them.

---

A couple other tiems to mention:

*Thursday's USA Today had an overly laudatory piece by Bob Nightengale about the Twins organization. Little of the information contained therein will be a revelation to devoted Twins fans, but it's worth a skeptical read. (Nightengale has a tendency to butter up to people, and Torii Hunter is one of his favorite subjects.)

*Baseball America's current issue ranks the "best tools" in each full season league in organized ball, majors and minors, and the cover boy is Joe Mauer (best defensive catcher and third best hitter in the AL). Also of note for Twins fans: Joe Nathan, best slider AL; Ron Gardenhire, No. 2 manager AL).

Twins farmhands n the minor league rankings: Jason Pridie, best defensive outfielder in the International League; Drew Butera, best defensive catcher in the Eastern League; Wilson Ramos, best defensive catcher; Anthony Slama, best reliever; Yancarlos Ortiz, best infield arm; and Jeff Smith, best managerial prospect, all Florida State League; and Ben Revere, best batting prospect, best strike zone judgment, fastest baserunner and most exciting player, Midwest League.