The Twins are one of the FOX regional games today (not that it does me any good personally, since Iowa will get the Cubs/Phillies game shown down here).
Today, the Twins are inducting pitcher Jim Perry in to the organization’s Hall of Fame. I’d just like to say, it’s about damn time. As a kid who grew up watching the Twins during Perry’s time with the ballclub, he was always one of my favorite players. Our family only made one or two trips each summer to the Twin Cities for a Twins game, but I always hoped I’d get to see Perry (or maybe Jim Kaat) pitch.
Most people, I’m sure, are aware that he’s the brother of Gaylord Perry. I remember back then that whenever you bought a pack of Topps baseball cards and got either a Jim or Gaylord Perry card, the blurb on the back of the card that Topps used to write something about the player always pointed out that his brother also was a Major League pitcher. They just had to keep changing the team affiliation, since both brothers played for a few different teams.
Anyway… I’m glad the Twins are inducting Jim Perry in to their Hall of Fame. It’s well-deserved. Thanks for all the great memories, Jim!
In roster news, it sounds like Nishioka is headed to Rochester to play a few games for the Red Wings, while Mauer stays in Ft. Myers a bit longer. He’s going to take some live hitting off of Joe Nathan in a couple of days. Wouldn’t that be kind of fun to watch?!
Justin Morneau is going to be sitting out the next two games, as well. Gardy has made that decision against Justin’s wishes, apparently. It’s probably the right thing to do at this point, but I like that Morneau isn’t happy about it.
Here are today’s line ups.
| RANGERS | @ | TWINS |
| Kinsler, 2B | Revere, CF | |
| Andrus, SS | Casilla, A, SS | |
| Hamilton, LF | Cuddyer, 1B | |
| Beltre, A, 3B | Young, D, LF | |
| Cruz, N, RF | Tosoni, DH | |
| Moreland, 1B | Valencia, 3B | |
| Napoli, C | Dinkelman, RF | |
| Murphy, Dv, LF | Rivera, R, C | |
| Chavez, En, CF | Tolbert, 2B | |
| Lewis, C, P | Baker, S, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Texas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | x | 8 | 12 | 0 |
Talk about turning the tables on an opponent! Today’s game looked an awful lot like the Friday night game, but with the Twins jumping on Rangers’ pitcher Colby Lewis, rather than the other way around.
Alexi Casilla and Delmon Young each had three hits, while Ben Revere and Michael Cuddyer added two each. Brian Dinkelman got his first two career RBI at the MLB level.
When a starting pitcher gets staked to a 5-0 lead in the first inning, it certainly takes the pressure off and the defense (especially Revere) made some terrific plays behind Scott Baker. Baker was perfect through four innings, struck out Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton three times, and just generally cruised through a complete game performance. That earns him our Boyfriend of the Day!
.