After that tough road trip, you have to imagine the Twins are really happy to be home again. The bad news is that they have to face Felix Hernandez tonight. That’s seldom a fun thing for your hitters.
Tonight, Joe Mauer will pass Earl Battey and become the player to appear in the most games as a catcher in Twins history. Mauer may say, “It’s a pretty neat little deal,” and I suppose that’s about as excited as Mauer gets about anything, but I hope this milestone somehow manages to remind fans just how good Battey was. If your Twins knowledge is lacking where Battey is concerned, do yourself a favor and remedy that situation by clicking here. In fact, while you’re there, if you don’t already own Jim Thielman’s “Cool of the Evening,” order it.
With no disrespect to former manager Tom Kelly, in the future when I see the retired #10 at Target Field, I’ll always think first of Battey.
On to tonight’s game… I’ll be away watching Beloit and Cedar Rapids do battle again, but enjoy the game, everyone!
| MARINERS |
@ |
TWINS |
| Ackley, 2B | Span, CF | |
| Gutierrez, F, CF | Revere, RF | |
| Seager, 3B | Mauer, C | |
| Montero, DH | Willingham, DH | |
| Jaso, C | Morneau, 1B | |
| Smoak, 1B | Doumit, LF | |
| Thames, E, RF | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Robinson, T, LF | Carroll, 2B | |
| Ryan, SS | Florimon, SS | |
| _Hernandez, F, P | _Hendriks, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Seattle | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
Liam Hendriks pitched 9 innings, gave up just 3 hits and had 6 strike outs. Unfortunately one of those hits went over the outfield wall and the Mariners (aided by a complete game gem from King Felix) kept the Twins off the scoreboard.
Denard Span had a fantastic outfield assist to get Carlos Guitierez at third base to end the top of the 9th but the Twins could not capitalize on the momentum.
Go get ’em tomorrow.
-ERolfPleiss
I’m not quite old enough to remember Battey. I think of Lyman Bostock when I see the 10.