First things first… a huge CONGRATULATIONS to former Twins pitcher Phil Humber. It’s not easy for us to congratulate a White Sox player for anything, but Humber tossed a perfect game at the Seattle Mariners this afternoon and that deserves some respect. Humber always seemed like a good guy during his days with the Twins and I like seeing good things happen for good people who work hard. It’s a sad bit of irony that Humber probably turns out to be the best player the Mets gave up in the Johan Santana trade… and the Twins didn’t even get the benefit of his talents.
On to game two of the Twins/Rays series and Justin Morneau is back in the line up, albeit as the DH. Carl Pavano is on the hill. Let’s wrap up the series tonight!
| TWINS |
@ |
RAYS |
| Span, CF | Jennings, LF | |
| Carroll, SS | Zobrist, 2B | |
| Mauer, 1B | Pena, C, 1B | |
| Willingham, LF | Longoria, 3B | |
| Morneau, DH | Scott, DH | |
| Doumit, C | Joyce, RF | |
| Valencia, 3B | Upton, B, CF | |
| Thomas, C, RF | Molina, J, C | |
| Casilla, A, 2B | Rodriguez, S, SS | |
| _Pavano, P | _Shields, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| Tampa Bay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | x | 4 | 8 | 0 |
That didn’t go well.
Carl Pavano deserved better. Alex Burnett certainly deserved better. ‘Stache should have been out of the 6th inning long before all the damage was done and Burnett did exactly what a relief pitcher is supposed to do… induce ground balls. But that presumes the guys behind him will turn those ground balls in to outs occasionally. Presumptions like that are risky with this crew.
I don’t like to over-react to a single game, but I’ve seen just about enough of a couple of the Twins infielders. I also had a bit of Scotch at the local bar where I watched the game and my patience lessens when said bar runs out of the good stuff by the 6th inning and I have to resort to drinking the house brand. If I hadn’t found a new fellow-Twins fan to commiserate with at the bar, the scene could have gotten ugly.
Ah well… Sunday we’ll see a new and improved Francisco Liriano (who should be VERY well rested, since he pitched fewer than 3 innings in NY this week) and our guys will come away with a series win… right? right? (Just nod your head and agree, please.) – JC