Joe

Nathan

Don’t read too much into that. It’s not likely that save opportunities in San Francisco will snake their way down to Nathan before Nen returns.

Nathan would do a solid job as a closer, but who is going to set him up? The Twins need a ninth-inning specialist so that Nathan can get them through the seventh and eighth innings. The big mistake they made was thinking that they should get a lot back for Jones. Since the outfielder is due $4.35 million in 2004, he doesn’t have much trade value. The Twins should just do what they can to dump his salary, sign Ugueth Urbina and go with Michael Cuddyer in right.

''I’d like to get to the point where I just hand the ball to Joe to start the ninth, and don’t even think about it,’' Gardenhire said. ''But J.C. [Romero] is so tough on lefties, that’s not a bad way to go, either. And we know J.C. can pitch the ninth, if we need him to do that.’' Romero is a good fall back option for the Twins and for Nathan owners, but Nathan is holding his own with a 2.70 ERA and six saves. His 1.80 WHIP is a little scary, though.

Nathan’s ERA is now down to 1.01. Among AL closers, only Mariano Rivera has been more valuable.

In the Twins’ half of the ninth, Michael Cuddyer lead off the inning with a bad-hop infield single off Mike Timlin and reached second base when third basemen Bill Mueller’s throw was offline. Nick Punto then bunted the next pitch back at Timlin, who threw to Tony Graffanino covering at first base. Timlin was charged with an error when his throw went wide of the bag and Cuddyer came around to score the winning run.

Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez and Craig Wilson apparently didn’t see much point in working the count against a tired pitcher. Nathan’s save tonight was his ninth of the season.

Boof Bonser gave up three runs in an abbreviated outing, but the Twins’ bullpen held the team together tonight. Kyle Lohse, Jesse Crain, and Nathan combined for 5 2/3 scoreless innings of work, with Crain picking up his first win of the season. Nathan has been a disappointment with just 10 saves, but he’s pitching as well as ever with a 1.93 ERA.

After entering a 4-0 game with the bases loaded in the eighth, Nathan allowed two inherited runners to score before getting out of the jam. The Twins then added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth. Nathan allowed a run of his own when David Ortiz drove in Alex Cora in the ninth and ended up requiring 42 pitches to complete the job. Because Nathan was pushed so far, the Twins might need Juan Rincon to close on Friday.

The runs were the first he had given up since June 6. He 34-for-36 in save opportunities.

He walked one. This was just Nathan’s second save of the month and third since mid-August. He’s allowed only three runs since August 18, so it hasn’t exactly been his fault. With the Twins shutting down just about every key regular and starting pitcher over the last month, save opportunities just haven’t been available. If you want to win a bar bet tonight, ask your friends who has the most Twins saves this season. It isn’t Nathan -- Matt Capps has 15. The 36-year-old Nathan reclaimed the job just when the team stopped trying to win games.