When 162 games just isn't enough

The Twins are making a habit of this extra regular-season game stuff.

I landed a ticket online Sunday evening. It's not a prime location, but I will be there Tuesday. One more trip to the mutant mushroom.

Jim Leyland on Rick Porcello, the 20-year-old who'll start for Detroit:

"He's been young all year and he pitched awful good against Minnesota the other day. I know one thing for a fact — he will not be scared. He'll be excited."

OK, but he hasn't heard the Metrodome in a playoff.

A few comments from the weekend:

1) Give the Chicago White Sox credit. They played that series in Detroit with passion, won two of the three games easily and came inches away from perhaps tying Sunday's tilt. They made it possible for the Twins to catch the Tigers.

2) Interesting quotes from Zach Greinke in LaVelle Neal's blog:

Even when they were getting out they were taking good at bats up there. The only team that I faced over the years where they…they actually elevate their game when the pressure is on the line. Most teams either stay the same or get tight and try to do more than they can do.

Delmon Young, perfect example. I threw a fastball to him hoping he would try to get big and hit a home run with it. He just stayed through it and hit it to the opposite field and I haven’t seen him do that a whole lot.

It shows how relaxed they stayed in pressure situations. And I don’t expect that.

3) Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune after Sunday's Twins-Royals games:

... (Y)ou know Joe Girardi and the Yankees will be rooting for the Tigers on Tuesday, and not just because the Tigers failed to protect a seven-game lead with 26 games to play. No visiting team ever wants to play high-stakes games in the white bubble that has been the Twins' home since 1982.