I did have better seats, behind the plate, for the series finale, than I did for the 3rd game of the series, left-centerfield, but other than that, same shirt (extra deodorant), no glasses (squinted less, closer to the action), but it didn’t seem to matter.
What a crazy night at the ballyard(?)!!! Sox had a 4-0 lead with John Danks on the mound. I yelled at Josh Fields to watch the bunt, he stayed back, and Carlos Gomez beat it out for a leadoff single, the Twins scored three times in that inning when Justin Morneau launched a three run bomb to right. In the 7th was when things got nuts, Denard Span was hit with a inside pitch while trying to bunt his way on, but he didn’t draw his bat back, which resulted in a strike rather than a man on 1st. Ron Gardenhire didn’t like the call, came out, argued, got ejected, kicked his cap into the air as he left the field, which resulted in Minnesota fans throwing their hats & other objects onto the field. Metrodome fans have more in common with Wrigley Field fans than just their guy fans peeing in troughs. Ozzie Guillen pulled his players off the field, fearful they might get hurt by flying debris.
After Guillen’s young pitcher was iced, Ozzie elected to march Danks out there to face Span with a 1-2 count, despite the fact that he’d thrown nearly 100 pitches, rather than bringing on lefty reliever Matt Thornton. Danks was pulled in favor of Thornton after Span walked. Nick Punto failed to bunt Denard along, but then the tying run reached 2nd on a wild pitch. Joe Mauer’s hard hit groundball ate up Gold Glove(?) SS Orlando Cabrera & skipped into centerfield for a game tying single(?). Thornton got Morneau to hit into a fielder’s choice. Another questionable Ozzie move, he brought on Octavio Dotel to face Delmon Young. Three things make the move questionable; 1) Young is not a home run hitter, 2) .304 against righties, .266 versus lefties, 3) What do you do if he gets on? Cuz Jason Kubel the on deck batter hits much better against righties than he does against lefties .291 13 homers versus righties & .161 1 homer against southpaws, and nobody was up in the pen. Dotel nails Delmon with a pitch, Kubel works the count to get a fastball, and hits it far & deep over the rightfield fence for a three run bomb.
Jermaine Dye’s two run shot in the top of the 8th cut the Twins lead to one. But then Boone Logan was the victim of shoddy fielding as firstbaseman Nick Swisher couldn’t dig a couple of bad throws (one by defensive replacement Juan Uribe & the other by A.J. Perzynski), that resulted in three runs. Uribe somewhat redeemed himself making a diving stop to his left and forcing a runner to end the inning. Final score 10-6 Minnesota, Series 3-1 Twins.
After the game I cabbed it to the Greyhound Bus station for a 1:15 AM departure out of town, didn’t have to hear about that poor fellow who was decapitated on a Greyhound in Canada the night before. It’s always interesting taking Greyhound, but this eight hour ride was basically uneventful.
Justin Morneau is on my APBA team, so I got a tee shirt with his number 33 on it. Originally Morneau wore number 27, but when pitcher J.C. Romero left the Twins, Justin grabbed #33, in honor of hockey goalie Patrick Roy. There are still alot Twin fans wearing outdated #27 Morneau appearal.
Although the Twins didn’t make a move before the trading deadline, they made a big one the day after, recalling Francisco, and releasing Livan Hernandez. Liriano had an outstanding rookie year, was injured, had surgery, didn’t pitch last year, was pounded early this season, was impressive in the minors, and was called up today. There’s something where Francisco will not become a free agent for one additional year, because the Twins resisted temptation, and waited until August 1st.