GameChat – Twins @ Mariners #3, 3:10

This pregame is going to be very brief as I’m on my way out the door to my folks house – I will rejoin the gamechat there, I hope. 

My one comment on the lineups today is that I’m glad to see ‘Lando out there since he was called “day to day” yesterday.  And I’m pretty sure that this would have been a natural off-day for Thome anyway so hopefully his back will have a good chance to rest today and the team off-day tomorrow.  Joe Mauer is getting his regular Pavano rest day so if we really need a big bat off the bench late in the game, I would think he’s a natural to be available.  We’ll see.  Anyway, catch y’all soon!

The good news is that the Twins are still 4.5 games ahead in the AL Central.  The White Sox also lost today and to the Yankees!  And Cuddy’s homerun was a real thing of beauty.  That being said, it was a bit of a bummer to watch such a great pitchers duel and come out on the losing side of it.  I can’t blame our offense tooooo much because they were trying to be aggressive on the base paths when they got there.  And we didn’t leave huge numbers of runners on base or anything either – we just didn’t get on base often enough.  So.. no sweep in Seattle – we still won the series.  The boys will just have to use the off-day to regroup and come out Tuesday at home ready to take down Detroit.

As an aside, the White Sox are officially one player richer.. err.. poorer is probably more accurate.  Manny Ramirez and the $4.3 million dollars left of this year’s salary now belong to Chicago.  This promises to be an interesting end to the season and it’s obvious from the additions to both the Twins and the White Sox that each team intends to be serious about winning this division and being set well for the playoffs to follow.  Gotta love it when you’re team is still in it no matter who you are…  Sorry Baltimore fans.