GameChat – Twins @ Rays, 5:40 pm, FSN & am1500

A) I’m really glad the Twins got to go south to play this weekend because the weather here in MN is just plain being mean. It’s COLD out there.. and they say it might SNOW tomorrow?  You know, it’s almost like Mother Nature knew that the homestand was over and decided to take a couple days off from the spring warm-up now that baseball is out of town.  I’m glad that Mother Nature is CLEARLY a baseball fan but I will readily admit that I’m jealous as hell of the warmth and sunshine our boys of summer are currently enjoying. *pout*

B) There is a lot of ‘discussion’ since the lineups were posted about Mauer missing a second day in a row… WOW, can people overreact to the slightest thing. Come on folks, Gardy had already said that he was going to try to rest Mauer as often as possible and has also said that at the slightest hint of soreness, he is not going to play games with Mauer right now.  And especially on a day when Pavano is starting and Butera has had a full day of rest, I think that it’s just as good right now to have him out there catching that speedy (except Damon) Rays lineup when they try to steal behind Carl – cause you KNOW they are going to try.  Will I miss having Mauer’s bat in the lineup for the second day in a row?  Well, yes, I certainly miss the potential but let’s be honest here, even Mauer has been struggling with the LowBA flu that seems to be running through our lineup.  I say thank you Spanky & Kubel and let’s see the rest of the lineup start to knock the ball around a bit before we waste our energy freaking out that our $23 million catcher is permanently injured past the ability to perform before the second week of 2011 baseball has even ended.  Sheesh.

C) Who the heck starts a game at 5:40 pm??  how weird is that?

OUCH… that smarts..

Not often that both closers on a team each fail to make a save in the same game.  Yet again, the blogger world is cursing the day of their births and declaring apocolypse.  Somehow, I think that the sun will still rise tomorrow and Florida will be warmer than Minnesota and both Nathan and Capps will survive to close again.

On the other hand, wow, it was nice to see Pavano in classic Carl mode! He was ON tonight and really pitched a fantastic game.  Sad to see his shutout put away but it was still a fantastic outing for the vereran and he proved once again why HE’s the one who gets our #1 starter position.  It was just beautiful.

What it REALLY comes down to is that the Twins are going to have to start trying to win games with more than 2-3 runs.  Let’s hope they remember that tomorrow.

[UPDATE] Mauer has been placed on the DL. Yeah, this could get ugly. Steve Holm (who?) has been called up to back up Butera.. so get this, according to Twins officials on Twitter, his injury is Bilateral leg weakness. Anyone care to decipher what the heck that is supposed to be?? Twitter once again answers my question: Bilateral Leg Weakness

*sigh*  I miss Red Dog…