um…. remember how last night’s lineup was a little .. creative? Guess what happens when Morneau gets the flu and Hardy’s wrist just can’t take anymore…
And when questioned about the unusual lineup and why he didn’t move Mauer up into the 2-spot, Gardy said, “I try not to create another hole in the dike by taking my finger out of one and putting it in another.”
*blink* *boggle*
Believe it or not, since Hardy was a late scratch, even the media didn’t know WHO is going to play WHAT position in the IF. Joe C. at the Strib got a little creative with his lineup tweet: New #Twins lineup: Span 8, Tolbert 4, Mauer C, Thome DH, Kubel 9, Young 7, Valencia 5, Harris 3, Punto 6. So, we’ll just have to see what is going on when the players come out.
| Minnesota | @ | Oakland |
| Span, CF | Davis, R, CF | |
| Tolbert, 2B | Ellis, M, 2B | |
| Mauer, C | Suzuki, K, DH | |
| Thome, DH | Kouzmanoff, 3B | |
| Kubel, RF | Rosales, A, 1B | |
| Young, D, LF | Fox, J, C | |
| Valencia, 3B | Gross, RF | |
| Harris, B, 1B | Pennington, SS | |
| Punto, SS | Patterson, E, LF | |
| Liriano, P | Cahill, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Minnesota | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| Oakland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 0 |
As if the lineup didn’t start oddly enough, then we had all that drama in the 9th inning to make it REALLY goofy. Poor, sick Justin Morneau comes out to bat for Harris, the pitcher takes pity and walks him, and they send in Hardy to pinch run. Odd but then the infield has to shift around to figure out the new ‘hole’ at 1B. What was that Gardy said about plugging one hole only to make another… ??
Anyway, game chat was not nearly unanimous whent it came to BOD. Probably the tightest single game competition yet this season. Frankie did a fantastic job as the starting pitcher and sadly, didn’t get the win. But Alex Burnette came in and did a brilliant job from the bullpen and got his first Major League win – in front of his family in his home state. All the RBI’s but one go to Delmon Young which gives him top billing. But that one other RBI was the WINNING RUN and it belonged poor, much-maligned Matt Tolbert! So, it has been determined that we have yet another TIE for Knuckleballs BOD: Tolbert and Young. (doesn’t that sound like it should be a band?) It’s Tolbert’s first BOD ever and Delmon’s second in two days!
