- Nick Punto (!) drives in winning run against Tigers
Ok, first a bit of a rant. Today's game was nationally
regionally broadcast on Fox. Probably only 0.001% of the country
actually saw it, since most of the rest of America got the
Dodgers/Whoever game. Fine. Whatever. I don't care if the entire
nation gets to see the Twins game, or what channel it's on, as long as
I get to see it on my tv (and I did). What really drove me nuts,
however, is when Fox cut from the Twins game to the Dodgers game just
as Miguel Cabrera was stepping into the batter's box because they felt
it was so goddam important to show us Manny Ramirez's first home run
since coming back from his suspension. News flash Fox: I am a Twins
fan, I don't give a **** about Manny Ramirez. I haven't given a ****
about Manny since he left the Indians, and now that he's no longer in
the American League, I care even less. I want to watch Francisco
Liriano pitch! And I'm sure the Tigers fans watching the game really
wanted to see Miguel Cabrera hit, not Manny. Worse yet, Cabrera was on
base when the mouth-breathers at Fox finally switched back to the
Twins-Tiggers game, and we were left wondering how in the hell that
happened. Yes, the broadcasters later replayed Cabrera's single to
right, and yes, nothing really important happened in the game while
they cut away, but that isn't the point. I am tired of the mainstream
media acting like the only things that matter in baseball happen to the
three largest markets in baseball. I realize that a Twins-Tigers game
probably isn't that exciting to 99% of the country, but it is pretty
******* important to Twins and Tigers fans. It's more important to us
than whatever the hell Man-Ram or A-Rod or whatever other superstar-we're-supposed-to-care-about-because-he-
plays-in-a-large-market
is doing. Besides, ESPN will show the same Manny highlights every five
minutes, so it's not like we would never get to see it or anything. Let us
watch the battle for the AL Central in peace!
Whew, I feel much better now. Frankie was great in this game, although a late-inning near-meltdown prevented him from getting the win. He shut out teh Kittehs through six innings, striking out seven and only walking one. Unfortunately, F-bomb ran into trouble in the seventh when he surrendered a three-run homer to Twin-killer Magglio Ordonez, allowing the Tiggers to briefly take the lead. He did settle down after that though, and managed to finsh the inning without any further damage. This is obviously a huge step forward for a guy who would completely melt down whenever he got himself in trouble, and while Frankie might not be the same pitcher he was before TJ surgery, he should be better than his 5.49 ERA.
Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer both homered in this game, giving the Twins an early 2-0 lead. The 2006 MVP had a very good afternoon at the plate, going 4-for-4 and driving in the tying run, besides hitting his 20th homer of the year. But even the Mountie was overshadowed by Nick Punto (of all people), who provided the game-winning hit: a bloop single that drove in Matt Tolbert and put the Twins ahead 4-3 in the eighth. You know, Punto's been hitting .286/.545/.286 so far this month, so I'm going to stop making fun of him for now. He still isn't exactly earning his $4 million this season, but at least he isn't as much of a liability in the bottom of the order.
- Twins drop first game of series in sixteen innings
Today's win was particularly sweet because Friday night's game was no fun for Twins fans. Kevin Slowey was awful, and as it turns out, is injured. Slowey has looked like he might be hurt in his past few starts so this news isn't surprising, though the cause of the injury is somewhat suspicious (a line drive from a year ago, really?). The Slow Man has been uncharacteristically wild, walking five batters in his past three starts and, most tellingly, hitting two (he had four hit batsmen all season last year). Anthony Swarzak has been recalled from Rochester in the meantime. Swarzak is hardly an ace, but he's pitched well enough to be a solid middle-of-the-rotation starter and should at least serve as a competent fill-in while Slowey is on the DL.
By the way, this is what it looks like whenever Slowey issues a walk.
The Twins managed to tie the game in the sixth (and later in the
fourteenth), but it was all in vain. Teh Kittehs scored three runs off
of R.A. Dickey in the sixteenth inning, and it would be enough to hold
off the Twins. For the Twinkies, this game was lost in the eleventh,
when the game was still tied at 7 apiece and Michael Cuddyer came to
the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. The Tigers intentionally
walked Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau to pitch to Cuddy, a move that
would prove to be brilliant on Jim Leyland's part. Cuddy struck out on
three pitches, chasing a pitch well outside the zone for strike three.
I actually gave up on the Twinks after that, something I pretty much
never do. I hate to do it, it makes me feel like a bad fan. This is baseball, after all, and there's
always a chance for a miracle. But when Cuddy essentially screwed up
their best chance to win the game, it just seemed like it was over.
And really it was, the Twins only managed to torment their fans postpone the inevitable for five more innings.
As of tonight, Baseball Prospectus has the Twins finishing the season with 83.9 wins and the Tigers with 84.3. In other words, the division is there for the taking so FOR CHRISSAKES JUST GO AHEAD AND TAKE IT ALREADY!!
Original Story:
http://myteamrivals.typepad.com/twins...
16
3
