GameChat – Rangers @ Twins, 7:10

This is going to be interesting.  If you want a really complete update on all our injury/callup/rotation situation, beyond what JC already posted today, Mackey did a GREAT job in his Friday Notebook  so I highly recommend reading it and I’m too lazy to do work that someone else has already done.  So I’ll just cover the highlights – no, there is too much, let me sum up.

1) Baker got a cortizone shot and he feels a lot better – might miss a start or two though

2) Kubel’s MRI is encouraging – no serious damage and he hopes to be back this weekend

3) Capps is better but Fuentes is still out.

I do feel a little badly for Matt Fox because this seems like a REALLY high pressure situation to come up and have your MLB debut but I’m sending him all the positive vibes I can work up.

First, I can’t tell you how cool it was to see that pregame special with all those fantastic former Twins all in one place.  It made for a pretty emotional reaction before the game even started.  And nothing like really adding to the pressure poor Matt Fox was under – here kid, it’s your MLB debut, you can do it front of these guys in a pennant race in September right?

Sadly, the injury bug seems to have bit YET AGAIN.  Valencia left the game tonight with a Hammy problem – they pulled him as a precautionary measure reportedly and consider him day-to-day.  Apparently, that is also the condition of Gardy’s lineup card and probably his ulcer too.  I do NOT envy him the job of pulling all this together.

It was another close game with a lot of dicey moments but at least Fox went 5.2 innings when we really needed something good from him and he kept us in the game.  Sadly he wasn’t able to get the win tonight BUT he did a very good job and made himself look pretty darn good.  Who knows what we’ll need him to do in the next few weeks but he looks like he can hold his own!  For that, we here at Knuckleballs decided that he should start getting ready for more appearances and are giving him his own personal copy of MLB10: The Show.  He should start working on his homework right away!

And then there were a couple other real standouts tonight.  First, Jason Repko was amazing!  Freakish even.  At least in the field.  My friend, Ben Collin, aptly titled him “the outfield version of Nick Punto”.  It really struck a cord for me and it’s likely very true.  I know he’d like to be hitting better and I wouldn’t mind if he was but if he can keep up what he does in the OF – especially those throws to 3B *shiver* – I would love to see him stick around for awhile.  And Capps really made himself popular here with Twins fans by coming in in the 8th inning to finish it off then, and then nailing down the 1 run Save.  It was really a solid great game for him.  For that, both guys are granted as much state fair food as they can handle – corn dogs, cheese curds and beer – whatever they want.

BUT in a game where we had some legitimately beautiful performances that deserved recognition and gratitude, we did have a bright light.  One player stood out both defensively AND offensively: Denard Span, this is your BOD.  Not only was there some really amazing catches in the OF but he managed to get the game-winning RBI in a VERY tight game that didn’t grant us a lot of offensive opportunities.  I hope he realizes that wearing tall socks is good for his mojo and he should do it all the time!!