Can the Twins really make a run at the AL Central title?

That's the line being loudly whispered among Minnesota Twins fans as Ron Gardenhire's crew has cut its AL Central deficit from 16.5 games on June 1 to just nine heading into Tuesday night's series opener against the Chicago White Sox at Target Field.

And lest you believe I'm inventing a straw man for this post, let it be known that�ESPN 1500's Phil Mackey has been leading the charge on his Twitter account. BLS pal@bennyc50 has been doing the same with some funny apocalypse-themed billboards on�That's Twins Baseball (seriously,�go check the rest of them out).

Anyway, these appear to be pretty heady times for a fanbase that has seen the Twins win nine of their last 11, yet still sport an ugly record of 26-39, bad enough for worst in the entire American League.

So what's the deal?�Did these optimistic TC Bears get into some bad berries?

The roots of their optimism are starting to show. Over the next week or so,�they're scheduled to get back almost every Twins players you've ever heard of. So the return of Joe Mauer, Jim Thome, Denard Span and others means no more Triple-A lineups or big worries if Justin Morneau has to sit longer to heal a troublesome wrist. Other factors putting a spring into a Twins fans' step today are a lot of games against the underwhelming collection of teams in the AL Central as well as the inspiration of the left-for-dead squads of '06 and '09, when Minnesota successfully chased down the Detroit Tigers by the end of the season for the division title.

But going from worst to first this year, of course, would be the toughest task for the Twins to date. Their lowest water mark in the '06 and '09 seasons was 25-33 on June 7, 2006. So despite their recent surge, the Twins are still well behind the pace of the recent comebacks that have established their reputation as a team you can't turn your back on.

Also, if we're operating under a possibly big assumption that a meager 86 wins take the AL Central title, the Twins would have to go 60-37 the rest of the way to get there. No team in baseball ? not even the Red Sox nor the Phillies ? has played at a .618 clip to this point of the season.

So do we pat the Twins fans on the head, say "aww, that's cute" and "nice Photoshops" before sending them on their way? �That would seem to be the smart and logical case.

But given their history, can we ever feel totally comfortable while doing so?

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