Look Ahead: Home sweet home without Metrodome for Twins?

NEW YORK -- The Twins had their typical weekend in New York (three straight walk-off losses). They have one more game in the Bronx, where they've now lost 22 of their last 25, and then three in Chicago, where they've lost 14 of their last 18, including the one-game playoff that decided the American League Central Division title last September.

They're not this bad at every road stop -- who is? -- but for a year-in, year-out contender, the Twins never do look the same out-of-doors as they do under that funny Dome of theirs. Since 2001, the Twins are 139 games over .500 in the Metrodome -- and 22 games under .500 outside it.

The Twins' record outside the Dome since '01 is 22 games under .500. (Getty Images)

They've been saved by the Dome, but not enough for them to want to save the Dome. Next year, the Twins move outside to Target Field, where they may or may not lose the best home-field advantage in the game.

"I have no idea," manager Ron Gardenhire said Sunday. "We all know that with the Metrodome, other teams don't like it. It's still going to be our fans, our home [at Target Field]. I don't know if we'll be giving up the home-field advantage. I do know we'll be giving up those 70-degree temperatures every day."

Yes, there is that. It's going to be awfully cold for some of those games in April and May, but awfully nice on those mid-summer days and nights when it was always depressing to go inside the Metrodome.

"There are a lot of kids in Minnesota who have never seen a major-league game outdoors," said Twins catcher Joe Mauer, who grew up in St. Paul. "I never saw a major-league game outdoors until I played in one."

Mauer said that despite the Twins' troubles in Chicago, he enjoys playing at U.S. Cellular Field, which he rightly called a "hostile environment." Sure enough, he hits about the same there (.316) as he does everywhere else (as a .320 career hitter).

But that's not true for most of the Twins, and it's also not true for most of the White Sox. As a team, the Sox have hit 25 home runs and scored 86 runs in their last 13 games against the Twins in Chicago -- and just 11 home runs and 34 runs in their last nine games at the Metrodome.

While the Twins have lost 14 of their last 18 in Chicago, the White Sox have lost nine of their last 10 in Minnesota.

"I think they come to our park and they probably feel beaten before the game starts," Twins closer Joe Nathan said. "I don't think we feel that way anywhere."

Not even in New York, where the Twins easily could have won all three games they lost over the weekend and where they split two playoff games in both 2003 and 2004. And even in Chicago, where that one-game playoff last year ended up as a 1-0 Twins loss.

"I don't feel like when we go to Chicago we get murdered," Gardenhire said. "The big thing there is the ball flies, and they've always had a lot of guys who hit home runs. That's why we got [Joe] Crede from them. We got one of them."

Crede, sure enough, hit a home run when the Twins visited U.S. Cellular Field in April. And the Twins still lost the game.

Crede, who missed most of the Yankee series with a sore back, is expected back in time for the games in Chicago.

The Twins will hope their luck changes there -- and that their home-field advantage stays just as it has always been in Minnesota.

The other stories to watch this week:

More Hurdle(s) for the Rockies? Is this the week that decides Clint Hurdle's fate with the Rockies? Owner Dick Monfort gave Hurdle a vote of confidence in an interview with the Denver Post last Monday, but now the Rockies have lost four of the last five to fall a season-high eight games under .500. Sunday, Post columnist Woody Paige called for Hurdle's firing, and even Rockies people are starting to wonder how long the manager can survive all the losing.

The Rockies are in Atlanta and Detroit this week before returning home. Hurdle is a Michigan native, but he wouldn't be the first visiting manager to be fired during or after a series at Comerica Park.

The Royals fired Tony Muster during a late-April visit to Detroit in 2002, a little more than a month later, the Blue Jays fired Buck Martinez the day after his team had finished a three-game sweep at Comerica.

A strikeout streak, and a stealing streak: It's impressive enough that Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander has struck out 11 or more in each of his last three starts. But if Verlander keeps the streak going through Wednesday's home start against Texas, that would really be something.

It's not that the Rangers don't strike out (they're actually third in the American League behind Cleveland and Tampa Bay). It's just that the only pitchers in the last 11 years who have struck out 11 or more in four straight starts are Randy Johnson (who has had six such streaks) and Pedro Martinez (who has had three).

There's another streak to watch at Tampa Bay, where the Rays have at least one stolen base in each of the last 19 games. While it's already the longest streak by an American League team since the 1914 Yankees (also 19), the Rays have to keep going to match the 1981 Pirates and 1986 Cardinals (who did it in 20 straight) and the 1985 Cardinals (who got to 29).

The excitement (or not) of interleague play: The first round of interleague play comes this weekend, and baseball will again try to convince us that everyone's excited by it.

Sure enough, this weekend brings us Dodgers-Angels, Royals-Cardinals, Mets-Red Sox and Phillies-Yankees. But are those really better than the mid-week intraleague matchups: Blue Jays-Red Sox, Twins-White Sox, Cubs-Cardinals and Mets-Dodgers?

Three games to watch: 1. Giants at Mariners, Friday. Randy Johnson's first try at 300? No, it's his second try at 299, but it comes in Seattle, the city where he played while winning 130 games for the M's. Johnson has pitched just three times at Safeco Field, winning in 1999 for the Diamondbacks and in 2005 for the Yankees, and losing in 2006 for the Yankees.

2. Cubs at Cardinals, Wednesday. Chris Carpenter's second try at 102? Well, yes, but it's only significant because it will be Carpenter's first start since April 14, when he left a game in Arizona with a torn oblique. The Cardinals weren't going to win for long without Carpenter, and sure enough they've lost six of eight to fall out of first place in the National League Central.

3. Rockies at Braves, Thursday. Tommy Hanson's debut? No, not yet. But the debut of 23-year-old Kris Medlen, who was 5-0 with a 0.96 ERA at Triple-A Gwinnett, should be exciting enough.