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Second-place Twins not concerned about standing

Aug 19, 2008 - 11:11 AM Oakland (57-67) at Minnesota (70-54) 8:10 p.m. EDT

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Despite falling into second place in the American League Central Division, the Minnesota Twins aren't worried about their playoff chances.

The Twins look to rebound on Tuesday when they continue their series against the Oakland Athletics.

Minnesota had a four-game winning streak snapped on Monday, suffering a 3-2 setback to the Athletics in the series opener. With the loss, the Twins are one game behind the Chicago White Sox (71-53) for first-place in the AL Central.

However, after averaging nearly eight runs a game during their recent winning streak and considering Minnesota hasn't lost consecutive home games in the same series since May 30-31, the Twins are confident they will be in first place again before too long.

"We feel pretty good with ourselves," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We're not going to quit. We got back into it and with our ballclub you feel like you'll get a big hit and tie the ballgame up and go from there. We just couldn't come up with one (on Monday)."

Minnesota hasn't been out of first place by more than one game since July 30 and hope Kevin Slowey (9-8, 3.94 ERA) can keep that trend intact on Tuesday.

Slowey has won each of his last two starts, surrendering one run in both outings while allowing just 10 hits in 11 2/3 innings.

Sean Gallagher (1-1, 4.60) tries to earn his first since July 11 - a span of five starts - for the Athletics.