The Twins win last night was a great way to start this series but I think Twins fans should get used to odd lineups thrown together by whoever is healthy and the regular appearance of our September call-ups as starters. Today we have Morales and Plouffe up from Rochester with more call-ups coming in a second wave sometime soon. Today’s lineup has yet another injured back causing a late scratch. Thome is down with more back trouble and Morales has been substituted in as our DH tonight.
But tonight’s lineup quite obviously reflects that Punto is out, Kubel is out (for a couple days at least), Hudson is out (having the foot re-examined) and now Thome is out (again for a couple days). At least I think Repko is a qualified and productive backup in the OF. With very little on the bench as far as options go, let’s hope that he, Casilla, Morales and Valencia can hold down the fort – and that Liriano pitches a real gem!
There appears to be some sort of organized conspiracy to keep any of us from being able to get to bed early.
In terms of summarizing the first 7 innings of this game, I think just about the only thing we need to mention is the name Francisco Liriano. 5 hits over 7 shutout innings. 1 BB against 7 Ks. It wasn’t always as pretty as that statistics line makes it look, as he had to work out of a few jams, but that’s what the best pitchers do.
The Twins needed that sort of effort again tonight, since we apparently still have not purged the assbats from the batrack. For his outstanding performance, FranKKKKKKKie was awarded a deep fried snickers on a stick by the GameChat crowd.
For the second night in a row, Danny Valencia gets the GameChat gang’s support for Boyfriend of the Day honors… but this time Danny doesn’t have to share the BOD award with anyone. James called it in the Chat and Valencia delivered the game winning single in the bottom of the 10th inning, scoring Michael Cuddyer for the 2-1 win (nice stolen base to set that drama up, by the way, Mr. Cuddyer!). With the win, the Twins are 31-14 overall since All-Star break, the best in baseball. Now they are 8-3 in extra-innings and this was our 5th walk-off win. Nice job boys! – JC
The folks who have gathered in our GameChats handed out 22 Boyfriend of the Day (BOD) awards in August (a few more than the actual number of Twins wins because we had some co-BOD games mixed in there). Heading in to the final game of the month, there were no fewer than eight players tied for the lead in the Boyfriend of the Month battle. That’s a far cry from the month of July when Delmon Young had his monster month and walked away with BOM honors.
But before we get to this month’s BOM award, let’s take a glance at where the race for Knuckleballs’ Boyfriend of the Year stands heading in to September. This race is all but over, folks. It will take someone getting awfully hot down the stretch to overtake DY’s lead in the BOY race, given that he holds a 12 to 7 lead over Francisco Liriano on the year. Frankie’s grip on “runner up” honors is much more tenuous, however. Fellow rotation members, Kevin Slowey and Carl Pavano have racked up 6 BODs each, while the group of Joe Mauer, Jason Kubel, and Danny Valencia all are still within reach of Liriano with 5 BODs a piece.
Turning back to Boyfriend of the Month… as it turns out, it was very appropriate that Valencia and Michael Cuddyer wrapped up the month of August with co-BOD performances against the Tigers on Tuesday night. Heading in to that final game, those two guys joined Mauer, Liriano, Slowey, Jim Thome, Scott Baker and Brian Duensing with two BOD awards during the month, making August by far the month with the largest number of players earning multiple awards.
But with their efforts on Tuesday, Michael and Danny did just enough to separate themselves from the pack and earn co-Boyfriend of the Month awards for August! – JC
P.S. A huge thank you to Joe Christensen at the Star Tribune for sending out via text message (and his blog) a link tothis column by Sports Illustrated’s Steve Rushin. It’s a terrific read for anyone who saw games at the Met, the Dome and Target Field (and a pretty darn good read even for those who didn’t). If you only have time to read one more article online today, make it that one. – JC
While Babs and KL have been en route up to St. Cloud to party with Sooze and the TwinsCentric crowd, poor old JC has been left at home to slave away on the blog and get the GameChat post up. They never take me anywhere!
(The truth is, I’ve spent the afternoon getting a haircut, loading the dishwasher, buying some groceries and watching a “classic” Twins/BitchSox game on Comcast Sports. It’s from 2003 and, as we’d expect since it’s on Chicago’s cable channel, the Sox won the game 8-6 in 12 innings on a Frank Thomas HR. Nonetheless, it was kind of fun watching Kyle Lohse, AJ Pierzynski, Bobby Kielty, Doug Mientkiewicz, Corey Koskie, Denny Hocking, LaTroy Hawkins, Christian Guzman, et al, along with a VERY young looking Canadian first baseman wearing number 27. I REALLY miss Justin!)
Anyway… the important thing is that we have the Twins to watch (at least those of us in areas of the country where FOX is showing the Twins/Mariners instead of the Phillies/Padres do, anyway). There isn’t much point in scoreboard watching today, since the Bitch Sox and F’ing Yankees don’t play until tonight. The Tigers did lose to Toronto earlier today, however, and I suppose we should continue keeping an eye on the kitties for a while yet.
According to LEN3, the newest kid on the block, Brian Fuentes, is on the scene and wearing jersey # 51, so watch for him to enter if the occasion calls for someone to face a tough LH hitter late in the game (assuming the Mariners HAVE a tough LH hitter… I suppose Ichiro may still qualify).
There isn’t a whole lot to say about this game. Nick Blackburn pitched like…well… unlike I ever recall seeing him pitch before. He’s had some very good games as a Twin. He’s been a money pitcher late in other seasons, so it’s not like it would be unheard of for him to throw a good game against the Mariners today. But 2 hits (BOTH in the first inning), 2 walks (one erased on a DP ball), 6 strikeouts and only 98 pitches over 8.2 innings? I didn’t see that one coming.
Good thing he came through with a lock down game, though, because the Twins apparently have not burned their assbats. Danny Valencia, JJ Hardy and Denard Span deserve to share a giant banana split for stringing together three consecutive hits in the top of the 3rd inning to account for the Twins sole run. And the new guy, Brian Fuentes earns his own personal hot fudge sundae for coming in to nail down the win by striking out the Ms’ big lefty Russell Branyan for the final out of the game. (There was plenty of discussion around Twinsville, I’m sure, about whether Gardy should bring Fuentes in or let Blackburn try to complete the game… but when you are fighting for a playoff spot and you have a left handed closer-quality pitcher who is as close to being perfect against LH hitters as you can get, the decision becomes pretty clear. Good call, Gardy.)
As for Boyfriend of the Day, I’m not sure we’ve ever had an easier choice to make. Nick Blackburn, you are our BOD. Keep up the great work! – JC
So… it’s amazing what can happen in a day when you aren’t expecting something. And I think what happened today should just go to prove that the non-waiver trade deadline really doesn’t mean doodly for the Twins front office. Just in case your laptop/phone/twitter is not surgically attached to your fingers like it is for some of us, here’s the news today: Twins acquired left-handed closer, Brian Fuentes, from the Angels for a player to be named later or cash. Wow. According to Gardy, he’ll be mainly doing the lefty setup duties for Capps (and providing a nice backup in case it’s necessary).
This is really an impressive move by the Twins in my book. Not sure who I’m going to recognize any relievers coming out of our pen in a couple days! But I think this is clear that Perkins is not expected to be a long-term Left-handed option in the bullpen. But that’s just my opinion.
In other news (not quite as interesting), the Twins announced that they’ll be putting a statue of Calvin Griffith on the plaza with the other player statues. Apparently the big news of that situation is that Rod Carew is ok with the statue being near his. Good? I guess I appreciate the sensitivity of the situation and how they handled it – WAY more of a soft touch than I am even capable up. However, I just can’t get away from the part of it that makes me feel like the Twins can put whatever statue they want whereever they want. And I LIKE Rod Carew!!! I’m pretty sure that his permission wasn’t really necessary. Like I said, it just goes to prove that the Twins are nicer people than I am. Big surprise.
As far as tonight’s game.. oy, another west coast game. They are never good for my sleep schedule because once I start staying up late? I have a hard time going to bed early for awhile. Let’s hope that Baker is up to form tonight – both the for the sake of the Twins AND my fantasy teams!
There was some hilarious comments made about the game tonight and I wish I could actually remember more than a couple of them. My favorite was from Dick Bremer regarding the radar gun hitting 96 mph for Scott Baker: “Mariners are borrowing the radar gun from the Wisconsin Highway Patrol..”
And on the postgame radio interview, Danny Valencia even had TC laughing when asked how he chooses who to throw the ball to at the end of an inning: “First I look for a Twins fan, if I can’t find that, I look for a female…” Well, Danny, at least you are honest.
There were a couple other things that had me rolling tonight but given the lateness of the hour, my brain is sleeping and I don’t remember what they were. BUT, it was a fun game. We got to see our new lefty, Flores, go out there and throw the ball a bit – and he fits right in our bullpen facial hair wise. I think they were testing him out a bit tonight and he had some bad-luck grounders but I think we’ll see him used primarily as a situational lefty. Especially since Fuentes is supposed to arrive tomorrow. The official roster move was made post game and was exactly what most of us suspected and Glen Perkins was sent back down to AAA to get innings there. Scott Baker had a decent outting which I greatly appreciate – it wasn’t his best by the end of it and he’s still throwing too many pitches for my liking but it definitely got the job done tonight. And Matty Guerrier just MADE my DAY!! Coming into a bases loaded situation left for him by Flores, he nailed it down and got us out of the inning with a minimum of drama. For that he gets a Cheesecake on a stick in honor of the State Fair.
And the offense actually showed up!!! Go figure but Joe Mauer is hitting .399 since the all star break. Wow. He was 3/5 again tonight with 2 RBI. He’s definitely quietly moving his way back up the leaderboard. Go Joe! For such a fabulous outting tonight, you are warded an entire bucket of Sweet Martha’s cookies and all the milk you can drink.
Hard to believe that someone could beat that but I think the GameChat voted purely on entertainment value tonight giving our BOD to Danny Valencia – and NOT for his post game comments. The entertainment started early with a very fun catch in the Twins dugout which he held on to the ball but nearly required BOTH Twins catchers to keep him from a headlong dive over the rail. Then he hit a HAWT triple – because all triples are hot. And he ended up tying Mauer for RBI tonight. So for all that flash and dash, Danny Valencia is today’s BOD.
So we’re up against the infamous Cliff Lee. If many Twins fans had their way, Cliff would be pitching FOR us against the rangers instead of the other way around. But I have to admit that I’m kind of looking forward to seeing him and Liriano face off. My concerns? I hope the nasty, filthy Liriano shows up. Oh yeah, and whereever the offense is on vacation, I hope they are back. I was getting a little spoiled this season, I’m a big enough person to recognize that. Three losing games in a row is pretty much my limit I think. I would really like to salvage at least one win from this trip south before we have to face the Sox again. You know how that is, I’m sure.
It’s really amazing how much better my mood is when the boys WIN a game – even if it was only one game of a 4 game series. A win is a win and I’ll take it. If it happens to be against Cliff Lee and Liriano was back to sizzling? I’ll be pretty darn excited by it! Tonight was a great way to come back and maintain a nice lead in the Central Division since the White Sox beat Baltimore tonight.
We really had some beautiful pitching tonight though – Liriano and Crain especially. The Rangers have a pretty good lineup to face and out boys did it well. So since I’m in an ice cream mood, Liriano and Crain get a Dairy Queen Blizzard of their choice. Enjoy boys.
We have other treats to give out as well. Thome was doing his Thomer-thing and Cuddy was downright Offensive! hehehe At least I think I’m funny. Anyway, Michael and Jim get to split an ice cream cake for all their awesomeness.
And finally, our BOD goes to DELMON! It’s been awhile since he got one of those and I’m very glad he seems to be returning to the BOD form! That GORGEOUS homerun which equalled half the RBI we scored tonight was definitely a good move. (He also can have whatever ice cream he wants).
It’s time for Scott Baker to step up in tonight’s showdown with Jared Weaver and the Angels. The Bitch Sox fell today in another extra inning game to the Royals (how many teams do you suppose have ever played 31 innings of baseball, covering three games, in something like 22 hours?), so here’s a chance to build the lead back up to 5 games over Chicago before heading to the Oven in Arlington.
The Twins have announced that Anthony Slama is on hand and available to pitch out of the bullpen tonight and that Nick Blackburn will meet the Twins in Texas and he will start game 1 of that series on Monday. That gives the rest of the rotation an extra day to rest the arms this week.
Here are tonight’s lineups as we bid “so long” to Torii and his friends and Jason Repko and Alexi Casilla get starts for the Twins.
We could talk about how this game was really one good inning surrounded by 8 innings of mediocrity. We could talk about how a lot of hitters still aren’t exactly ripping the ball. But when the win sends you five games up on the Bitch Sox, why quibble over details?
Scott Baker was on his game tonight. He sliced through the Angels from top to bottom. And when the Twins needed someone to break the scoreless tie, the rookie, Danny Valencia, stepped up and sent a Jared Weaver fastball 426 feet in to the second deck in left-center field. That appeared to wake up the bats a bit as Orlando Hudson hustled out a 2-out triple. Weaver “pitched around” Mauer and Kubel (that’s code for “throwing them nothing remotely close to the strike zone”). The strategy, apparently, was to get to Cuddyer because he has had very little success against Weaver historically.
It looked like the strategy may pay off as Weaver quickly worked ahead of Cuddyer, but Cuddy just kept fouling off one pitch after another until a conference was held on the mound to discuss what to try throwing next. Whatever the decision was, it worked out well for the Twins as Cuddy laced the pitch in to the LC gap, clearing the bases and putting the Twins up 4-0.
Baker completed 7 clean, shutout innings, providing the kind of performance the Twins have needed out of a starting pitcher and Jesse Crain & Matt Capps wrapped up the shutout.
Plenty of baked goods to go around tonight, but the consensus of the GameChat crowd was co-BOD awards for Scooter Baker and Michael Cuddyer!
Quick injury update: Yes, Nick Punto is back on the DL – my heart just kind of breaks for him. He reaggravated the hamstring that was supposedly healed. And the team proved me wrong yet again because, no, no matter how badly I think we need it, they did not bring up a pitcher. Tolbert is up to give us that flexibility of infielders and such.
As far as the game tonight, I’m kind of excited to see Dan Haren pitch but maybe that’s just because I like LOOKING at Dan Haren. I’m willing to admit that is a possibility. I would definitely like to see the offense be a little busier tonight than they were last night and I’m NOT goign to be ok with more LOB. I hope that Duensing holds his own and goes deep into the game with a lot less struggles than Frankie and Pavano had. Let’s go boys!
THAT went MUCH better. How nice of the boys to give me exactly what I asked for! And how nice of them to do such a great job while Jim Crikket was there to witness it! The offense remembered how to hit and Duensing went out there and nailed it down, inning after inning! More than anyone, I think the bullpen appreciated that. But yeah, going 8 innings is something I think every coach, fielder and fan loved too.
For any normal game, Kubel going 2/4 with a homerun, a double and 3 RBI would probably be enough to earn him the BOD. But not tonight. Tonight it was great but it was only enough to get him a great big frosty adult beverage (can you tell I just left the bar?). Heck, we’ll even throw in an adult beverage of choice to Jim Thome because, seriously, I am shocked to see just one triple from him in a season but multiples?? are you kidding me? Dude, maybe he needs a shot of 5 Hour Energy instead.
For tonight’s game though, the boxscore really says it all. Duensing went up against a pitcher MANY Twins fans would have liked to see as a possibility in our starting rotation (including me). He kicked Dan’s ass. Haren just didn’t look like the hot pitcher I’ve seen in the past – maybe it was that he just doesn’t do facial hair as well? I don’t know but Duensing came out the winner in tonight’s comparison and given how BADLY we really needed a good outting from our starter and how fun it was to see him get 6 k’s, I’m not at all surprised that the chat chose Brian Duensing for today’s BOD! Congrats!
And sorry, Jamar, apparently our library is a bit short on the Duensing shots – of the ones we have so far, this really is the best. I”ll make it a personal goal to be sure to get an even better one for you sometime soon! I’m sure I could go steal a pic off some other site somewhere but we like using our own!
So I spent the day wearing my Thome is my Homey t-shirt. *laugh* Boy, was that fun after last night – sooooo many people stopping me to ask where they can get one. If you want one, here’s the info: Thome is my Homey t-shirt.
But as for the rest of the fall-out from last night’s game, you would think it was the last time we played them this year! Talk about “playoff atmosphere” – I kept thinking, “wow, we have five more games, what’s going to happen next??” But for all the stuff that was shared after the game last night, almost all of it was amusing – from the video of the player melee, the replays of Hawk’s non-existant “homerun call”, the Spanish language homerun call from Tony O., and even Nick Punto’s joyous declaration of man-love at the plate. There was a lot to love about last night’s game even after the game was over.
I think I was most entertained by the comments from Ozzie afterwards – because that is ALWAYS fun. Here’s a couple great ones from Phil Mackey about the Twins/White Sox rivalry and his reaction to kicking Thome to the curb.
Like I said, we still have 5 games left. Tonight, I think it would be better for everyone if Frankie threw better than Baker did last night. I love the late – or extra – inning heroics but… I wouldn’t mind getting a lead and keeping it either. And it will be interesting to see if Delmon gets plunked today…
Two down, one to go! (yeah and then the other series) But that was definitely a fun game. It was a frustration to everyone, Frankie included, that Liriano didn’t have his best stuff. He pushed through anyway and it wasn’t a HORRIBLE outting. You could just tell that the focus wasn’t where he wanted it tonight. That being said, it was still a team outting and they all worked hard to pick each other up when it was necessary. Offense showed up to play and the bullpen pitching was MARVELOUS! Manship, Crain, and Capps all did their jobs in spectacular fashion. For that, they have earned as many Krispy Kremes as they can put away without making themselves sick.
As for that offense I mentioned? SWEET!! Span was 2/4 with 2 runs. Cuddy was 3/4 with a run and an RBI. JJ Hardy NEARLY hit a HR into the bullpen but instead got a sweet Sac Fly that scored what became our winning run. They also are hereby awarded access to the Krispy Kreme buffet.
However, we had another Target Field first tonight. Joe Mauer FINALLY got a homerun at HOME! It was a wall-skimmer but it still counts! Good to have that off his back now. And besides that piddly homerun, the man was 4/5 with 2 runs and 2 RBI. The pace he’s been on since he returned from the shoulder issue is just RIDICULOUS! But I’m definitely not complaining. It sure served us well tonight and THAT is why he is today’s BOD! Congrats Joe Mauer!
WOOOHOOOOO!!! Can’t believe there were people stalking the airports to see if they could see the White Sox arriving in town.. what? someone else came in? Who cares?! The Twins are playing the WS in Target Field!!!! Sorry if I’m a little focused on baseball right now – haven’t gotten into the football mode, much less care about prima donna players.
ANYWAY… given my baseball addiction, the off-day was spent doing what? with BASEBALL PLAYERS! 😀 I went over to Park Tavern yesterday afternoon to see Baseball Unplugged (and chat with) Nick Punto, Drew Butera and Danny Valencia. I didn’t take TOOOO many pics, mostly because it’s a bar and it’s dark but it was a fantastic night with some guys who were obviously having a good time and enjoy their fans!
Special thanks to Nick Punto for making sure that Betsy, I, and the young boy sitting near us all got to ask a question since the guy who does the hosting was on the other side of the bar… You are a true gentleman, Nick and it was great to spend a little time with you! AND it means I have an answer to the question that has plagued me for awhile from the horse’s mouth!
My question was “who is our backup 1B guy if something happens to Cuddyer before Morneau is back in the lineup?!” *knock on wood* Danny spoke up and said that, if necessary, it is supposed to be his job and they have had him practicing over there just in case. Drew said that he’d be backing up Danny just in case but that since soooo many people would have to be injured for him to be responsible, he doesn’t like to think about it. I don’t blame him.
But let’s focus on tonight – Nicky is eligible to start tonight but he’s not out there. That’s not terribly surprising given how hot Valencia has been but at least it answers the question many fans had been asking. We have a good lineup out there to face the Sox and I think they are coming off a great series against the A’s which has lifted morale. I’m not going to honor comments about starting bench brawls during this series because I think that kind of deliberate nastiness is below the Sox. If it turns out that it’s not, I’ll be incredibly disappointed. Win TWINS!
The temptation for this game is to completely ignore the majority of the game – just pretend the first 9 innings didn’t happen because the 10th inning was just THAT AMAZING!!!! THAT was exciting baseball. *shiver*
But before we get to the 10th, there really was some decent ball we should talk about. Baker did not have his best stuff tonight so even though he got a 4 run lead to work with early in the game, he ended up giving most of it up and leaving the game in the 5th. But offense wasn’t REALLY a problem tonight. Every time we lost the lead, we came back out and hit some more… and so did the White Sox. yeesh. Our bullpen did ok but not great tonight. Felt like we had to use everybody and we nearly did. Perk covered well though tonight to fill in for Baker and that’s what we have him up here for. After that, it was a lot of same ol’ same ol’ – and then Capps blew the save. It’s going to happen but it’s hard to be boost the confidence of your new team’s fans when that happens a couple times in the short time after you’ve arrived.
However, the highlights include two EXTREMELY awesome catches from people I consider unlikely to do the webgem thing – Delmon Young and Jason Kubel. WOW. Seriously, they’ll be played on ESPN. I’ve heard that Kubel’s catch is #1 on the list for today. For that excellence, both boys are awarded a pan of warm brownies to share – the gooey, dark, awesome kind.
And that was just the defense – the OFFENSE had their night going too! Young and Hudson both had homeruns, Kubel had a great triple and Valencia had an unfortunate ground rule double – unfortunate because it would have scored Delmon if it hadn’t left the field. They all were swinging the lumber pretty well and they all get a great big ice cream sundae for it. Thanks boys.
And it was hardly an issue but you know there had to be some sort of drama after the comments that came out of the coaching staff of the WS today. So when a pitch appeared to head hunt JJ Hardy and just BARELY missed him, blood pressures definitely went up. As an almost immediate response, Delmon came in from 3B and decided to take an unusual approach to homeplate since he didn’t have a chance at being safe if AJ didn’t drop the ball – he totally went for the two-handed bar brawl shove instead of the normal home plate tackle. It didn’t make AJ drop the ball and he was still out but I think the message was clear enough. Granted, all that is purely my opinion.
And then we have the 10th inning. Neither Capps nor Rauch who came in to mop up his mess really had the stuff that we needed tonight – which resulted in the White Sox taking the lead in the top of the 10th. Ouch. But we got to the bottom of the 10th with it being a 1 run game… Delmon did his job and got himself on base. Then, in a perfectly scripted ‘Casey at the Bat’ scenario, Jim Thome walked up to the plate. I’m sure that every White Sox fan knew what was going to happen. Every Twins fan knew what was going to happen. It has happened so many times before – he just wore the other uniform before. And then homerun #581 went DEEP into the Target Field plaza. Turns out it was the first walk-off HIT in the new park. Took awhile to get it. But ESPN reported that for Thome, it was yet another cool milestone: Thome is tied for the most walk off home runs of all time, with 12. He’s tied with Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Jimmie Foxx, and Stan Musial. For that, Jim Thome, you are the Boyfriend of the Day!
and just for the fun of it – you should click on Kbro’s pic of the postgame interview PIE!!
CapitalBabs is at Target Field today, which means two things… we hope to have a first-person report of the game, complete with photos, by tomorrow AND you have to put up with me posting the lineups and setting up the GameChat today. I haven’t had this much responsibility in a while, so I hope I don’t blow it.
First, let’s cover a few team notes being reported this morning.
As was indicated last night, the Twins plan to activate Nick Punto off of the Disabled List in time for him to be eligible to play in the first game of the WhiteSox series on Tuesday. Today, Gardy indicated “a catcher” would be sent to Rochester to make room for Punto. Hmmmm… wonder who that will be. I suggest someone call Rochester to make sure Jose Morales’ RedWings uniform has been cleaned.
Matt Tolbert has been doing his “rehab assignment” with the RedWings and the Twins now have officially reactivated him and optioned him to Rochester. No surprise there. His rehab stint has gone well but there’s simply no spot on the Twins for him at this point.
Over the past week or so, there has been some discussion about what roster move the Twins would/should make when Justin Morneau is reactivated. With Morales sent down, there really isn’t any obvious position player deserving of a demotion. In any event, it turns out this discussion can wait for a while… and perhaps a long while. Doc has apparently still not had a single symptom-free day since going down with a concussion over a month ago. As much as we all want to see #33 back in the line up, you simply can not rush this thing. Take care of things the right way and be ready to provide that huge offensive and defensive lift down the stretch.
Soooooo many things to say about this game, but let’s start with the most important thing first. The SWEEEEEEEEEEEP of the Oakland A’s!
There was no shortage of drama today, either. How about Jason Repko’s amazing leaping catch in left field? Danny Valencia’s three hits! and of course, the Chairman, Joe Mauer, continuing his terrific hitting. All are deserving of assorted pastries.
The big stick today was Jim Thome, who’s 3-run homer (career number 580, for those of you counting) ended up providing the difference-making runs. Jim gets all the ice cream he can eat!
(I suppose it would just be mean to suggest we also send some “thank you baked goods” over to JJ Putz in Chicago for coughing up leads the last two games and allowing the Twins to build a 3 game lead in the AL Central race over the BitchSox headed in to their series at Target Field this week… so I won’t suggest that.)
In an ordinary day, Thome may also have been worthy of the Boyfriend of the Day award. But when your starting pitcher comes back from missing a start with a sore elbow and throws seven no-hit innings, there can be no doubt as to who wins the BOD award. (By the way, those fans who booed the decision to lift Slowey after 7 innings need to buy a clue… you simply do NOT risk hurting a pitcher who’s coming back from a sore elbow.)
Yes, you, Kevin Slowey, are our Boyfriend of the Day!
