You can't stop these Indians, you can only hope to contain them

The Indians won their sixth straight game last night, beating the Twins 4-3, for their longest winning streak since September 2008. And for that, I believe we can thank Twins catcher Joe Mauer, who did one of the dumbest things I can think of a ballplayer doing. Mauer is a three-time batting champion despite being a fairly slow runner, which is typical for a catcher. The reigning American League MVP came up with one out and runners on first and second in the seventh inning of what was then a tie game, after the Twins had already plated two in the inning to even things up at 3. If I'm a Twins fan, I'm feeling pretty good. There's no guarantee Mauer gets a hit, obviously, but there's nobody the Twins would rather have up there in that situation. A single to the outfield would score the runner from second and put the Twins ahead.

So what does Mauer do? He tries to bunt his way on. From the Associated Press' gamer:

Mauer put forth a reasoned argument, saying that facing hard-throwing lefty Rafael Perez, who likes to throw cutters away, coupled with Indians third baseman Jhonny Peralta playing way back invited the move.

"It's just giving me a base hit," Mauer said. "It got off the end of the bat a little bit and I didn't get it out there far enough. Didn't execute."

That may be, but it apparently never occurred to Mauer that nobody scores from second on a bunt single. Joe Mauer is a great player, and if I were to pick one guy to build a team around, it would be either him or Albert Pujols, but that was just plain stupid. Thanks, Joe. Yesterday was not my birthday, but doubtless there are a few Tribe fans whose birthday it was, and I'm sure they appreciate the gift.

The Indians broke the tie in the top of the eighth when Travis Hafner doubled to the gap in right center to plate Carlos Santana, who had walked to lead off the inning, and after a scoreless bottom of the eighth and top of the ninth, Chris Perez — thrust back into the closer's role after Kerry Wood's recent injury — set the Twins down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth.

Justin Masterson, in his first start since the All-Star break, had a reasonably strong outing, going 6 1/3 and giving up three runs on seven hits. Two of those runs scored after Masterson left the game, as Rafael Perez gave up two hits to score the runners Masterson had left on base. R. Perez got the win, which bugs me a little, but that's the way baseball's archaic scoring system is.

And the Indians remain unbeaten in the season's second half. I'd like to point out, for what it's worth, that each of the six games of the current winning streak was started by a different pitcher — the five regular starters plus Jeanmar Gomez, who made a spot start against Detroit because of the doubleheader. Jake Westbrook, who started the first game of the streak, starts in a 1:10 p.m. game today, against Francisco Liriano. A seventh consecutive win would be super.