GameChat – Tigers @ Twins #2, 7:10

The Twins win last night was a great way to start this series but I think Twins fans should get used to odd lineups thrown together by whoever is healthy and the regular appearance of our September call-ups as starters.  Today we have Morales and Plouffe up from Rochester with more call-ups coming in a second wave sometime soon.  Today’s lineup has yet another injured back causing a late scratch.  Thome is down with more back trouble and Morales has been substituted in as our DH tonight.

I’m not going to go into GREAT detail about all the injuries in our lineup but I greatly encourage you to check out several pieces done by Phil Mackey that cover the difficulties Ron Gardenhire is going to have to manage around – including Justin’s current status:  Pushed to the limit in battle of attrition, Justin told to stay home, and Call-ups coming in two waves.

But tonight’s lineup quite obviously reflects that Punto is out, Kubel is out (for a couple days at least), Hudson is out (having the foot re-examined) and now Thome is out (again for a couple days).  At least I think Repko is a qualified and productive backup in the OF.  With very little on the bench as far as options go, let’s hope that he, Casilla, Morales and Valencia can hold down the fort – and that Liriano pitches a real gem!

There appears to be some sort of organized conspiracy to keep any of us from being able to get to bed early.

In terms of summarizing the first 7 innings of this game, I think just about the only thing we need to mention is the name Francisco Liriano. 5 hits over 7 shutout innings. 1 BB against 7 Ks. It wasn’t always as pretty as that statistics line makes it look, as he had to work out of a few jams, but that’s what the best pitchers do.

The Twins needed that sort of effort again tonight, since we apparently still have not purged the assbats from the batrack. For his outstanding performance, FranKKKKKKKie was awarded a deep fried snickers on a stick by the GameChat crowd.

For the second night in a row, Danny Valencia gets the GameChat gang’s support for Boyfriend of the Day honors… but this time Danny doesn’t have to share the BOD award with anyone. James called it in the Chat and Valencia delivered the game winning single in the bottom of the 10th inning, scoring Michael Cuddyer for the 2-1 win (nice stolen base to set that drama up, by the way, Mr. Cuddyer!). With the win, the Twins are 31-14 overall since All-Star break, the best in baseball.  Now they are 8-3 in extra-innings and this was our 5th walk-off win.  Nice job boys!  – JC