GameChat – Athletics @ Twins #2, 12:10 pm

So Span is still sore which gives Revere a little more playing time.  He sure is awfully excited to get that opportunity and I’m glad he’s enjoying himself.  Span is on meds for the shoulder (a rotator cuff bruise according to reports) and is feeling better.  Kubel is also feeling better but still getting another day. Mauer gets a little more time off from the plate so Butera gets another start.

This actually looks like a pretty classic Gardy afternoon game lineup – you’d never know this was nearing the end of the regular season but with that realization, you might know that the numbers are in the Twins favor.

Another win!!  The magic number is down to 6 and all three teams – Twins, Yankees and Rays – are within a .5 game of each other for the best record in all of MLB baseball.  Wow.  This is a lot of fun people.  For all of us who were Twins fans when winning was not nearly as frequent an occurance, this is a real treat.

We have a few honorable mentions for individual plays in today’s game:  JJ Hardy had a SPECTACULAR leaping catch for liner that really was well over his head – perfect timing and full-extension allowed him to snowcone a catch that otherwise was a guaranteed hit.  Butera had a beautiful shot to the LF corner that gave him a double to set up a scoring opportunity.  And Ben Revere managed to get his first MLB RBI!  You can tell he’s having a great time up here.  I hope it continues.

And then there were some truly beautiful performances that went throughout the game.  Kevin Slowey is BAAA-AAACK!!  Wow was it fun to watch him pitch today!  He finally has easy and confident delivery working again.  He just had an EXCELLENT day on the mound against a team that seems to know how to hit pretty well minus poor Chris Carter.  For that, the Chat awarded him a steaming mug of hot chocolate and I’ll throw in a piece of cake too.  I hope he continues this!!! 

Another of the games standout performances was Jason Repko out in RF.  Over and over again, he made spectacular catches and .. well.. have I mentioned his ARM recently?!?!  wow, can that guy throw the ball.  Our starting OF’s should be really glad that his BA is kind of low.  He’s got major league fielding ability that’s for sure.  For that, he gets a massage (to keep that arm nice and limber) and a refreshing beverage of his choice.  Keep it up man and I hope we keep you around!

But the STAR performance of the day was DANNY VALENCIA!  He hit a timely 3 run HR to break the tie game.  And we never gave up the lead after that – we never even scored another run after that so he truly was the person most responsible for giving Kevin Slowey another win.  Viva Valencia!