it’s a battlefield

A little rest may have done Brian Dozier a lot of good. The former Southern Miss star had an RBI double and scored a run for Minnesota in a 3-1 win over Cleveland on Tuesday night. Dozier, battling a slump for several weeks, was out of the Twins’ lineup on Sunday for just the fourth time all season; the team was off on Monday. Despite his recent struggles, Dozier now has 98 runs and 71 RBIs – 169 runs accounted for (always a telling stat) in 146 games. Tuesday’s crucial win moved the Twins within 2 games of Houston for the second American League wild card. Ah, but there were games that mattered all over the AL landscape on Tuesday, and Mississippi State product Mitch Moreland played a prominent part in one of them. His two-run homer tied the score for Texas in the sixth inning and the Rangers went on to beat Oakland 8-6. Moreland has 23 homers on the year, matching his career-high, and has four homers and 12 RBIs in his last 10 games, of which Texas has won eight. Texas now leads the AL West by 2 games over Houston, which lost to the Los Angeles Angels, who are a half-game back of Minnesota in the wild card standings. Meanwhile, ex-Ole Miss standout Seth Smith went 1-for-3 with a run as Seattle beat Kansas City, which is battling to hold onto the AL’s best record. Toronto, the AL East leader, is just 1½ games back of the Royals in the best record race even after a loss on Tuesday to the New York Yankees, who hold the second wild card and are still in the East Division race, as well. Yes, it gets confusing. But that’s the fun of September these days. P.S. Ole Miss alum Alex Presley had two more hits – that’s 19 in the postseason – scored twice and drove in a run to help Fresno beat Columbus in the Triple-A championship game. Presley hit .413 over 10 games as Fresno, a Houston affiliate, marched to the Pacific Coast League pennant and then took Tuesday’s one-game Triple-A showdown in El Paso, Texas.