The biggest baseball news in Minnesota today had nothing to do with the Twins. The Saint Paul Saints are going to be building a brand new stadium. Look out, Target Field!
Last night the Twins were let down by the starting pitchers, the bullpen and Ryan Doumit‘s defense. Tonight they have a chance to salvage a win in a 3 game home series with the Royals. In the first two games Minnesota has been outscored 19-6, so even keeping the game close would be an improvement. The Royals are sending Luis Mendoza to the hill and the Twins are countering with the winless wonder, Liam Hendriks. Mendoza is not very good, and Hendriks has not proven he is any good yet, so this could be a fun game for fans that like offense.
Joe Mauer and Chris Parmelee are still out of the lineup, but at this point I would assume that Ron Gardenhire and the Twins are erring on the side of caution and making sure these guys are 100% before putting them back in the line up.
| Kansas City Royals |
@ |
Minnesota Twins |
| Lough, RF | Span, CF | |
| Escobar, A, SS | Revere, RF | |
| Gordon, LF | Willingham, DH | |
| Butler, DH | Morneau, 1B | |
| Perez, S, C | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Moustakas, 3B | Mastroianni, LF | |
| Cain, CF | Escobar, 2B | |
| Hosmer, 1B | Butera, C | |
| Giavotella, 2B | Florimon, SS | |
| _Mendoza, L, P | _Hendriks, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E | |
| Kansas City | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
Well that sounded like a fun game (at least the last few innings) anyway. Liam continued to struggle, giving up a couple of runs in the first inning, but the Twins offense managed to stay within striking distance and ultimately took the game in to extra innings, winning 4-3 in the 10th.
The Twins bullpen did a real job tonight. Hendriks survived five innings, but that left five innings of work from the pen. Robertson, Fien and Burton not only worked one shutout inning each, but none of them gave up so much as a hit. Glen Perkins followed with two shutout innings, giving up just one hit. That’s some pretty impressive work and it would be quite easy to just give the Boyfriend of the Day award to that group.
You could also make a case for Denard Span. While he had only one hit, it was a walkoff double in the 10th inning and that’s pretty BOD-worthy. For that matter, Alexi Casilla, who entered the game as a pinch runner, led off the 10th with a double of his own and ended up scoring on Span’s double and that was pretty sweet work on Lexi’s part.
But tonight’s BOD award is going to Trevor Plouffe. Not only was Plouffe the only Twins hitter with more than one hit, one of his two hits was a home run in the 9th inning that sent the game in to extra innings. Beyond that, Plouffe made a diving defensive play in the 5th that saved a run. Without that play and the homer, this game was another loss. For that, Trevor is our BOD! – JC
I think we’re going to need to do a refresher course on what BOD means… LOL
in a walk-off situation? really? Span is the only possible guy in my book. It’s a team sport so you can’t get the win without all of them but yeah, there’s a reason why Span is the guy with bruises from his teammate today.
Hey… you of all people should be familiar with the phrase, “decisions are made by those who show up!” and Span never gets his opportunity to be a hero if Plouffe doesn’t come through with HUGE plays… TWICE. Once defensively (which you must admit, he has to be encouraged to do more often) and once with a 9th inning HR to tie the game.