GameChat – Twins @ Royals #3, 1:10pm

Several bits of information for today’s pregame conversation:

1. The Morneau’s have named their brand new little boy – Martin. Yes, they named him Marty Morneau.. it’s a solid name but the jokes have already begun.
2. Span was only a little dizzy last night which is why he left the game. He was not traded and he was not injured. He’s back today and says he feels fine now.
3. Plouffe has a deep bruise on the base of his thumb so he’s out again today. In a way though, this is good news. No serious damage and bruises usually heal fairly quickly.
4. Prepare yourself for constant discussion of the heat if you are one following along with Dick Bremer… it’s supposed to be EXCEEDINGLY hot in KC today. It’s already 96 degrees there right now and is supposed to top out around 102 or so according to reports I’ve looked at. The good news is that it’s NOT humid, just hot. Now that the guys aren’t in those tents they were wearing last night, they should be able to sweat and cool easily.

Despite it being a Sunday day game, Gardy actually has a great A lineup out there so I think he’s taking seriously the desire to win this series and make some progress in moving up in the division. Let’s hope the offense & defense does a better job than last night. Deduno hasn’t really sparkled in his appearances in the bigs so far but I think he’s been laying the groundwork to be a decent pitcher – especially if the offense gives him some room to work.

Well there were a few good points to today’s game not the least of which was we WON! Winning today means we won the series. It does give us a little progress in moving up in the division now though. We are now in last place by only half a game. *snort* I would really like it if we didn’t stay in this place by the end of the season.

We also got a great start from young Deduno who really threw well today. The Royals lineup has shown that it knows how to take advantage of poorly thrown balls so it didn’t really give Samuel a lot of leeway but then again, he didn’t need it. I give a lot of credit to him and to Drew Butera for whatever his part was in getting a quality start plus some from the struggling rookie.

Also, Ryan Doumit accomplished something today that only 2 other Twins have ever done – he hit TWO HOMERUNS, one from each side of the plate. Only Roy Smalley and Chili Davis have done this for Minnesota so that’s quite an accomplishment in itself. It also seemed to light a fire under the other MN bats to get some runs going.

Between the efforts of Deduno and Doumit, we are giving them CO-BOD status today. Thanks guys!

Sam Deduno
David Goldman, Associated Press

Ryan Doumit