How Can We Screw it Up More?

Pretty sure Orlando Cabrera isn't going to be the hero that Billy Smith thinks he's going to be. I don't think one guy can win a ball game and after tonight's piss poor performance, I feel bad that Cabrera has to come here and deal with this. If I am not mistaken, I thought we had a pretty good set up with Nick Punto at 2nd and Brendan Harris at short, but apparently someone didn't like that so we'll just say f*ck you both and bring in the new guy.

After watching Bobby Keppels performance tonight (if that's what you wanna call it) it's pretty clear what the Twins needed and I'm pretty sure the fans have been asking for it all season and that's pitchers. Whether it be relief or starters, we need better pitching. Plain and simple.

Here's a suggestion for next years trading season, can we trade for different GM's? I'd really like a new one. It was funny cause while at the game Wednesday night, we actually saw Bill Smith walking out from somewhere trying to make his way to his area where he watches the games and I really wanted to yell something at him, but didn't.

I'd like to have a little conversation with our favorite center fielder, GoGo. How many times does Gardy have to yell at you before you understand you have to hit the cut off man?! You don't have a bionic arm that can throw that far without it being off somewhere along the line. Blackie was ready for it... next time hit the cut off and we might stand a chance, got it?

The only positives I found in tonight's game were the diving catches by Punto and Morneau. Otherwise it was just a sucky baseball game all around.

Now the guessing game begins until they announce who is getting sent back to Rochester. My money is on Casilla, but after reading an article before the game started, they hinted towards Buscher. Young was also brought up in the talk, but with Cuddy leaving the game in the 10th inning, does that secure Young's spot on the 25-man roster? We almost need him here for cases like that.

But now after watching Twins Live, apparently Cuddy has a strained lower back, so who knows what's going to happen. Do they put him on the DL if it's bad enough and leave the roster alone or do they still send someone down? It was originally said that the roster move would happen tonight if someone didn't get hurt, coincidence? I'd like to hope not. Or are they buying time to figure out who to kick out?

This game was way too similar to the games played in the series in LA, shape up boys... cause this crap doesn't cut it.

What's That I Smell??

That's right a SWEEP!!!

I love a good sweep, but I love it even more when it's the White Sux that we sweep! Pretty sure out of the 9 games I have been to this season, that was the BEST game I have been to!

Part of my superstition was actually saying, or in this case typing, the word sweep before it actually happened. I learned my lesson last season when I would say it before it would actually happened and I vowed to not do that again. The other one is still in tact with tonight's win which I will tell everyone about (make fun if you want) but the last 4 times I have worn my Cuddy shirt to games, we have won. So that shirt seems to be lucky for whatever reason.

I am super proud of Brian Duensing for his performance tonight. Going into the game on, what, 3 hours notice? Giving up only 3 hits, I know two of those were home runs, but still. He had two strikeouts, Betsy and I were yelling for him so loud, we think we pissed the people off in front of us. Oh well, get over it :)

I won't lie, I was a little nervous when Beckham got the base hit off Nathan and then he walked Konerko, we said he only had to face 3, but eh, he still got the save and we won so all is forgiven :)

I would have to say the biggest surprise of the game had to be Casilla. It was nice to see him step up and make big plays when we needed it the most, IE the go ahead run on the bloop single to center, I never saw that one coming, but than again he has a habit of making big plays against Chicago when we need it. I want the Alexi back from last year... let's work on that, k?

Highlights of the game:
1) Seeing Brian get the start.
2) Having amazing seats behind home plate again (thanks Amanda!)
3) Pissing the people off in front of us.
4) Watching Joe Nathan get the save (again).
5) Yelling really loud at AJ when he came into the game in the 8th, and applauding him when he got out. :)

Enjoy your day off guys, you have definitely earned it! Just remember your A game when LA comes into town this weekend!

Justin, Cuddy, GoGo and Nickie during infield

Swing Justin, swing!

His facial expressions just kill me!


Why does he have to be growing on me?!

Jason Kubel

My "baseball boyfriend" who didn't do shit tonight...

And a little Mauer for good measure (don't mind the blur in the corner, the bitch in front of me kept getting in the way.)

Back Into The Swing of Things

First and foremost... kudos to the Twins fans for the standing O for Buehrle when he came off the field tonight. Way to be a class act (even if it is our rivals). I won't lie, on the one hand I was pleased we broke up the no hitter, but going 45 at bats without a hit... that's pretty good.

There are so many things I could say, but I'm going to bit my tongue and not say it because I'm becoming some what superstitious. So moving on... once one of them is broken I will share with the class.

While sitting in the Dome Monday night watching the guys play, I was a little worried with Glen pitching, but he surprised me along with the entire team and pulled out a great victory. Tonight's game was no different, I think Timmy pitched a good game, I'm sad that he wasn't able to get the win, but congrats to my favorite Weeble on his first major league win.

I'm proud of the guys for playing smart baseball, I guess I could say. They are taking one game at a time, focusing on what's happen here and now and not about what's going to happen tomorrow. In my opinion this is what it takes to make it into post season, yes you have to have the constancy, but they have to play smart baseball. Make smart plays, no screw ups.

And they are doing it without our White Sox killer, Mr. Jose Morales. Won't lie, I miss him. I've always liked Jose and I hope he's called back up September 1st, when we get our extra roster spots, right along with Matty Tolbert.

"Home plate umpire Chris Guccione, back, uses two paper cups to scoop up a mouse off the turf during a baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins on Monday, July 27, 2009, in Minneapolis. Guccione got a little help from third base coach Jeff Cox. Minnesota won 4-3."

I totally don't remember that from last night... I must not have been paying as close of attention as I thought!

Weebles Wobble

So apparently our favorite Webble, Jose Mijares, ended up going to the hospital during the game because he felt ill. My first thought after hearing that... Swine Flu. Yup, that's right, even though I hope I am not right. And really, the only reason I though that was because apparently someone from the Rangers was diagnosed with the piggy flu right after we left there. It's a little un-nerving. But like I said hopefully I am wrong.

I don't think they team needs to be dealing with that right now, especially considering the fact we're already short enough guys with injuries and some claiming to have injuries that really don't exists, but whatever.

At least we managed to get off the west coast with two wins, Swarzy picked up yet another win and believe it or not Jesse Crain actually managed to get out of an inning without giving up a run! It's a miracle!

It's time to come home guys, that and I'm tired of sitting up till midnight every night hoping and praying we can pull off a win. Everyone better bring their A game tomorrow cause there's a large group of us coming and a few of us will hunt you don't if you don't!

Who Would We Lose?

With the trade deadline coming up and all the talk surrounding all the teams and who to get rid of and who to keep, the Twins have been keeping a pretty low profile...until lately.

With Kevin possibly being done for the season it was said that the Twins were going to hold off on trading anyone. My question is, who were they thinking of trading? Apparently it was one of our starters, my hopes would be that it wasn't Nick, Timmy or Kevin. I think we could do without Frankie and after his last few outings I think we could do without Glen.

But now that it seems our starting rotation will be safe so where does that leave us? Outfield? Infield? All of this talk has come up about Orlando Cabrera, yes another White Sox, we seemed to do okay with Crede so... But that also leaves the question, who do we lose?

Nick Punto?

Alexi Casilla?

Delmon Young?

Or someone from the farm system?

The only one in that list that I would be upset if we lost was Punto. He's the last of the original piranha's. He's a great defensive player, yes he is lacking in the offense side, but the guy can make great plays at short and 2nd.

Delmon has been hit or miss since we got him from Tampa and Alexi, while he did fine last season, has done nothing to help the team this year, except for hurt his with his sloppy defense and 0 for whatever at the plate.

Each guy on that list can have their moments of brilliance and their moments that leave you wondering what the hell just happened.

And who knows, the deadline may come and go and we could have the exact same team we have right now.

Again? Seriously?

I really wasn't even going to write a blog about last nights game cause what else can you say when we lose? You can't give them anymore excuses and I'm sure they all know how thin things are wearing when it comes to the end of the season. I knew LA was on a hot streak going into this weekends series, but I figured maybe we would stand a chance and catch them on an off day... yeah not so much apparently.

Plus with now possibly the biggest blow to our starting rotation this season... this team has A LOT of work to do. I was shocked when I originally read that Slowey was going to have to have surgery, but I wasn't surprised. I figured something was more wrong then just a strain, but I was really surprised yesterday when it was announced he was shut down out in Rochester and was on his way back to MN.

Pretty sure I'd like to give a big eff you to Juan Uribe for that line drive off Kevin's wrist last fall.

I'm not worried about Nicky and Timmy, they can hold their own. Swarzy, I'm not writing him off because he's so new and I've seen him pitch amazing games (hello? his first major league start!) However, I've been worried about Frankie since opening day and if Glen is going to claim he has some sort of injury after every sucky start, we're going to have a problem.

Really the only positive from last nights game was Joe's two home runs. I was thinking he forgot how to hit those and two in one game pretty much made up for it.

And have I mentioned I hate when we have to play on national TV?

A Blown Save? Say it Ain't so Joe!

Coming from me, I'm getting tired of all these walk off wins after us having the lead, even though I didn't last the whole game. I somewhat heard what was going on as I did leave my TV on, but I totally missed Nathan's blown save, which is probably a good thing because it quite possibly could have done me in for the day.

He's not perfect. He's not going to get the save every time he goes out there, but does it make the pain any less bearable, no not really because it's Nathan, so many people expect when he goes out there it's game over. But after 20 consecutive saves, as much as I hate to admit it, I knew there was going to be a game in there that didn't go his way and last night was it.

We had been doing so well on the road lately and the last thing I wanna see is this team fall back into the "hole" we were in on the road at the beginning of the season, but all these walk-offs and late inning rally's from teams are going to hurt us in the long run.

I have to agree with Sarah though, can we get some sushi for the Angels for tonight's game? Buscher knows of a great place to get it! How about a rule boys? No sushi on games days... less chance of food poisoning! I'll admit I did have to laugh a little when the reports started coming in that he was thinking it was bad sushi, but at the same time I know it's not a laughing matter because it's no fun. Thankfully we had Harris to play at 3rd or it could have been a more interesting game then it already was!

It's no secret that I don't like Jesse Crain, so I had to chuckle a little this morning when I found out he had to take the loss. Welcome back Jesse. But you know it has to be bad when Gardy even comes out and says that we need pitchers. I've got at least one outfielder and a 2nd basemen we can trade! Perhaps even a pitcher or two from Triple A.

If tonight's game goes like last night I'm going to take all their little rally monkeys and throw them in the Pacific Ocean :-)

A game guys. Where is your freakin' A game?! That's all I'm asking for. You had it going for awhile, did you leave it in Texas with the gray uniforms or something?

Kudos for perfection

While I have never liked the White Sox or Mark Buehrle for that matter and will probably never like them (maybe Mark when he retires), I must give him props and a congratulations for this perfect game today. While I wasn't able to see it, I was listening to the game for Tampa Bay and managed to listen to a part of history. I can not say congrats however to the Sox on their win, that will never come outta my mouth.

So, Mark, congrats on your perfect game. And congrats on being apart of MLB history, I think you've earned it.

And this picture has to be the cutest thing I have seen in a long time:

Oh it Gets Worse

You know, I didn't think things could get any worse after the Monday night debacle, but oh was I mistaken. Today's game, hands down, put Monday's to shame, it made Monday's look good. It was a crappy day at work and then to listen to the bullshit going on in California was enough to pretty much put me over the edge.

I will never understand how this team can go from having a good game one day and forgetting how to play the next. Missed defensive plays, poor pitching, again all around sloppy baseball. Our first two pitchers had a problem hitting the strike zone for whatever reason and in the end it ended up getting Mulvey sent back to Rochester and we get Crain back. I'm not sure how I'm liking that idea, but right now I think I'll take just about anything as long as it can hit the damn strike zone.


Apparently the reports are Perkins had a sore shoulder going into today and that's why he couldn't pitch. You know, my theory is excuses don't work, I understand if they are hurt issues are going to happen, IE Slowey, but lately this seems to be an every game thing with someone. I'm starting to feel like the Padres and Mets with as many people as we have hurt with some sort of injury.



Kudos to Justin on his home run, at least we had hope for a half inning and run to make it a little less embarrassing.

When this season started the only pitcher in our starting rotation I was worried about was Frankie, the bullpen was the least of my worries. Turns out I should have been worried about Perkins and 95% of the bullpen instead. I'm just hoping when Kevin comes back off the DL, he falls back into place right along with Nicky and gives our bullpen a break.

While I love this team and I always will... it's hard to stomach games like today and still hold hope that the playoffs will happen. Every Twins fan knows they can play better baseball then this, we all saw it last year.

Rest up guys cause LAA is on a hot streak and I don't think they are going to roll over and just let us win.

For the love of the navy...

So before I really get into last nights "recap" I just wanna say, Cuddy wanted that triple just to get to third base to give a big eff you to Mike Muchlinski for that blown call Monday night. Did anyone else notice it took him a while to actually call Cuddy safe? I think if he would have called him out, Michael would have gone postal.

Reading articles yesterday online while I was at work, I was reading the article about Gardy wanting instant replays and after the play, I have to agree with what he said. I know the questions are out there about "Where would you draw the line of when to use it?" but I think it should be left up to the manager to decide when to draw the line.

Gardy made the comment if the call is against you, your flag is taken away for the remainder of the game, which I think is fair because then it will stop the manager from making silly mistakes, so to speak.

Who knows, it may have helped us the other night or it may still would have worked against us, we'll never know.

I did have to laugh though, during the game when they showed the fan with the sign that said "Cuddyer was safe". Every news broadcast or radio station that I have listened to said the same thing, but that game is over... moving on.

I do love his smile :-)

It was discussed tonight that the starting pitching rotation is either sending a big get well soon message to Kevin or they left the grey uniforms in Texas or sent them ahead to LA, because the guys that never wear the navy uniforms have been wearing them a lot lately, IE Swarzy, not that I care because the navy uniforms are my favorites.

I don't think I have ever drove so quick in my life during the top of the 10th just because I wanted to actually be able to see the bottom of the 10th in person in hopes they would be able to pull out the win.

In ending, the Twins played better ball tonight, they brought their A-game (for the most part) and went out there and won which is what I expected. This was true Twins baseball, a pitching duel, small ball, and running smart. Now let's do it again tomorrow, alright guys?

All I know, is I'm thankful tomorrow is a day game... these west coast games are killing me!

That one hurt...

I really don't know what the hell to say about last nights game other than that was the most disgusting game I have seen in a long time. I was all set to come on here and have an exciting post full of "Wow did you see all those home runs?" (keep in mind that 3 run homer by Kubes was the 100 this season already) and "What a great game and a way to start the series!" That's going to be replaced with the following:

"What was that bullshit call at home?" (even though I went to bed when Oakland got the go ahead homer, I watched it this morning, even though I said I wasn't going to cause I knew it would piss me off again.)

"What the hell happened to our bullpen?"

"Where was Nicky's A-game?" He had 10 days off (too much rest?)

Overall we just played sloppy baseball. Our defense wasn't there, I think they were back at the hotel still sleeping. Sure the offense was there with an amazing amount of home runs, which had me smiling from ear to ear, but that smile seemed to shrink every time the A's managed to rally back and get runs the next time at bat.

Could it be blamed on lack of sleep? Yes. Could we blame that call at home by an Ump who clearly needs glasses? Yes (I have an extra pair that I will gladly loan him so he makes the correct calls tonight). But we are capable of losing a game with a lead like that all on our own, so I'm not going to give them any excuses.

The team blew this one on their own. Do I like the fact we lost, hell no, but did we deserve to lose? Yes. That wasn't clean Twins baseball last night, at least it wasn't after all the homeruns.

And to think, at the beginning of the game I felt bad for Oakland with their lack of fans and those ugly white shoes (seriously? White shoes?). But once Holliday tied it up and then the go ahead homerun as I turned off my TV, any sympathy I had went out the window.

It's game on now, take no prisoners, and all I know is the guys better ALL bring their A-game tonight because apparently Oakland means business and anything less than a win, after last night, is unacceptable.

Another winning road series...

I was hoping we'd be able to get the sweep, but with Frankie pitching I knew that was going to be tough and with Kinsler getting a lead off home run, I knew we were really going to have to fight. I was talking with Erin during the game about how we needed a new pitcher and she told me that the Pirates are interested in him. My comment, they can have him. I'll go for a trade so we can get Garrett back.

I want Frankie gone or at least to the bullpen. He does fine for a couple innings but then it all seems to go to shit and he forgets what he's supposed to do. It's time something is done with him because we're not going to get far without having all 5 of our starters doing what they are supposed to be doing.


LNP had to have been the top player of the game tonight. First with his home run (amazing!) and then his unassisted double play in the sixth inning. This is the parahna I like to see. He did so well tonight. I hope we continue to see this from him again and again.

I'm sad that Dunesing got the loss tonight, I really thought he had a strong outting especially going 1-2-3 in his first inning out there. He has so much potential and I hope he's up here for the rest of the season that's for sure.

Oh and Mauer and I are officially fighting...this 0 for 6 crap needs to come to a sudden hault. What happened to the Joe from June? I miss him.

Stats Time

Kudos to Kubes on his 3 run homer! Nice going Jason :-) And what's with all the guys getting hair cuts? Everyone leaves for 4 days and we have guys coming back with no hair!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So while I was watching tonight's game, I decided to do a little comparison of a couple of our players. It's nothing too in-depth or nothing too complicated, it's basically just comparing numbers for 4 players:

	AB	H	SO	R	RBI	AVG
Young	192	51	59	20	25	.266
Casilla	111	20	21	8	5	.180
Morales	67	23	10	10	4	.343
Redmond	89	21	10	5	4	.236

I had thought about doing this after I heard that Jose had yet again been sent back to Rochester, but then after seeing Casilla's piss-poor performance tonight I knew I needed to do this post. It didn't surprise me that he went 0 for 4, it really didn't because I didn't expect him to do any better, that and Bert did pick him for Pick the Stick so Betsy's theory still stands true!

I understand that Bill Smith says we need a 12-man pitching staff and Gardy has said the same thing. I can see that we need a bigger pitching staff considering some of our starting pitchers have struggled lately. And Smith says having the third catcher is a luxury, fine whatever, but from what I have read Jose can be used in other areas in the infield and his batting average is so much better than Alexi.

Now I know this is probably going to set a few people off, but my opinion on the whole Redmond/Morales thing is this. While I have nothing but respect for Redmond and think he's a wonderful catcher, I strongly believe that Morales needs to be in the majors. He has nothing but proven himself while he's been up here doing everything that's been asked of him plus he knows how to kill the White Sox when we need it the most.

Delmon is a totally different area. He can be on the top of this game one day, making great plays, hitting the ball all over the place and then there are days where I can sit down and watch a game and wonder why is he still here? There are other people that deserve a chance. I know he went through the rough period with his mother dying and that's understandable, but lately I just don't know.

We need strong defense and strong offense and I'm a little iffy if we can get that from the line up we have right now.

Champs yet again

Post derby celebration? Or pre-all star game celebration?

Even though Joe was knocked out of the home run derby in the first round it looked like he still had fun it with and I thought it was really nice of him to ask Jimmy O'Neil to do the pitching for him. Once Joe was out, I was personally pulling for Cruz, but I knew going up against Fielder it was going to be tough.

Joe, didn't your mother teach you it's not nice to stick your tongue out at people?

I will admit that I was a little concerned going into tonight's All Star game considering who the National League had in their lineup, but once I found out that our Joe Nathan was getting the 8th and Mariano Rivera was getting the 9th, I knew if we could manage to make it to the 8th with a lead we stood a really good chance of taking yet another All Star game away from the National League.

Congrats to our three all star guys, Joe, Joe, and Justin for a well played game along with the entire American league team! It was nice to see Jason and Justin on the field at the same time again playing together. I miss Barty. I wish he was still here.

I'm giving Carl Crawford a gold star for that catch he made in the 7th inning. That right there was a game saver and he totally deserved MVP for that.


I had to laugh though when Buehrle was out for his inning and they said it was a typical inning for him, when I saw him on Sunday, he was anything but typical!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since we're at the half way point in the season, I know a few people (my bosses and my dad) are counting the Twins out of the post season already. I, being the true fan I am, say bullshit. There is still a lot of season left and I strongly think with the right attitude and the right motivation (Justin and Joe, take note in this) this team can be so much more than a .500 team, we came so close last year and I, personally, would love to see the Dome go out in style and what a better way to do that than with another division title and a trip to the World Series (plus I'm saving some vacation time for a reason guys).

Just little minor things from the weekend I forgot:

~ Alexi Casilla will be rejoining the team for our trip to Texas meaning we had to say goodbye to someone. Matty Tolbert got the "kick in the pants" as my brother puts it. I personally like Matty better then Alexi, but I'm willing to give him one more try to prove he can put all these little mental mistakes past him.

~ Gardy has also said the team will have a 12-man pitching staff when they go to Texas this weekend. Now my question is, who gets sent back to Rochester or do they put Boof on the 60-day DL and open a spot on the roster? Really the only person we have that can go down is Jose Morales and I may just cry if he gets sent back. We need him up here!

Enjoy the rest of your time off guys and bring your A-game when we get to Texas on Friday!

Who hates AJ...?

My what a weekend! I do love it when the White Sox come into town and for once I finally got to see the Twins play them in person (twice in the same series no less!) Today's post is going to be a little bit different cause I'm going to try (key word: try) to break this down into each game. We'll see how well it works!

Friday:

Positives:
1) Getting 4 runs in the first inning in thanks to Danks forgetting what the strike zone was.
2) Going easy on the bull pen after the Yankees series.

As far as negatives go... after this weekend I don't remember much of the game, so we'll go with the two positives.

Saturday:

Betsy, Erin, and myself cheap seated it for this game as it was KTIS's Faith and Family night with a post game concert by Jars of Clay. It was also my first time seeing the Twins play Chicago in person.

Positives:
1) Seeing Joe Crede get 2 home runs against his former team.
2) Booing AJ in person
3) Seeing Brian Duensing pitch in person (finally) and getting to meet him earlier in the day.
4) Watching the guys come from behind and fight till the end.
5) Seeing Jose Morales come out and do what he does best again the White Sox... get base hits and score runs!

Negatives:
1) Watching the White Sox win.
2) Watching Papa Perk do whatever that was supposed to be cause that wasn't pitching.
3) Seeing our guys play some sloppy baseball at times.
4) Dealing with the ass holes in the cheap seats. I'm sure Betsy will fill everyone in on that story.

Thoughts on the post game concert:
*~* It was awesome getting to hear Denard, R.A. and Kevin's faith stories after the game was over. They all earned extra points in my book, especially R.A. It was just an amazing experience.
*~* Jars of Clay were amazing! It has been a long, long time since I had listened to anything of their songs (for personal reasons) but listening to their stuff reminded me of what's really important.

Sunday:

Even though I was (still am) exhausted. It was a GREAT game :)

Positives:
1) Denard Span lead off home run!
2) GoGo's 3 run home run!
3) Brendan's 2 run home run!
4) Watching AJ be the last out of the game :-)
5) Seeing our All-Star guys receiving their All-star game jerseys.

Negatives:
1) Watching Joe Mauer go 0 for 4.
2) Seeing Justin struggle (this was all weekend).

I'm not sure what is going on with those two, but the need to get out of the slump they are in. They are our all stars, they are suppose to play better then they are.

Here are a few pictures from Saturday and a couple from Sunday (for some reason my camera didn't wanna focus this weekend so most of them came out blurry):

Our view from the cheap seats

Justin and Nick during infield practice

Kevin and R.A. during Faith Night


R.A. telling us his Faith story


Kevin and R.A.'s oldest daughter


Kevin attempting to dance


Kevin out dancing with the kids


I just loved his facial expression in this picture :)


Jars of Clay


Denard telling us his Faith story

R.A.'s youngest. He was so cute and he looks just like Daddy :)

Michael Cuddyer aka "The Thinker"

I hate the Yankees...

I really do. I don't think I have ever hated a team more...well, maybe Chicago, but that rant will come this weekend :)

As a whole the last two games weren't as bad as I thought they could be. It was close. Does it suck that we lost and got swept at home? Yes. Do I wish we could have beat the Yankees once? Yes. These games were full of ups and downs, amazing plays and heartbreaking strike outs.

For example:

~ GoGo's catch on Tuesday
~ Crede's amazing diving grab last night.

~ Cuddy striking out with bases loaded last night had the big one of the biggest heart breakers of the whole series.

I was thrilled to say I was at the game last night when Joe finally got enough plate appearances to take the lead in the AL batting average. I had an amazing time with the girls last night at the game. It was a long day at work, but the amount of fun we had last night made it all worth it in the end.

Highlights of the game:
1) Seeing Joe get his plate appearances to take the lead
2) Seeing Crede's amazing catch
3) Having seats that close to the field (I hugged my boss this morning for those seats)
4) Booing the hell out of A-Rod every time he was up to bat.
5) Being at the game to see/hear this all happen in person

I was really surprised during the game today when they were talking on the radio that Joe bunted on the first pitch. Is he really that good?

A big get well soon goes out to Glen too. It's not been a good season for out pitchers.

Okay...onto the pictures:

One big rant...

Fair warning this post is going to be one long rant broke down into sections... so here we go.

Rant #1: Jim Souhan
He's an ass. Plain and simple. How in your right mind can you say Manny deserves to go to the All Star game when he admitted using drugs? Same goes with A-Rod. They don't deserve to be there. As soon as he started ragging on Kevin, I was ready to deck him. Kevin deserved to go, but I'm sure with him going on the DL it didn't help any. Souhan just annoys me.

Be sure to join the Jim Souhan facebook group: Can Souhan, Hire Phil Miller I would much rather read the articles from Phil then Souhan any day.

Rant #2:
The Yankees over all. I will never liked the Yankees, I made it known in Sunday's post that I hated them and I will always hate them. When we play the Yankees I go in with the attitude we're going to lose so it's not so depressing when we do. But it also makes it a pleasant surprise when we win, which we WILL win tomorrow night because we can and we've done it before. I won't take no for an answer, got it guys?

Positive #1:
My one gem of the game was that wonderful and beautiful catch by GoGo robbing A-Rod of that grand slam. If you missed it or just want to watch it again go here. It's worth watching over and over.


And while we are on that inning, I can not even begin to imagine the pressure that Brian Duensing was under going into that inning with bases loaded and no one out. That inning could have been a lot worse then what it was and I think Brian proved he can handle himself quite well on the mound.

And yes, the Cuddy Skittle count is at three bags (which he might just get tomorrow night).

Tomorrow: Papa Perkins against RHP A.J. Burnett. All I can hope for is a win, because I can't stomach a loss like tonight in person.

*Pictures and tomorrow nights post will come in conjuction with my post about the day game on Thursday since it will be late tomorrow night before I get home and work calls on Thursday early.

Hey now you're an All Star...

While watching the All Star selection show this afternoon on TBS, I took note on who was playing for the American league this year. While I agree with 95% of the roster, there are a few of them I don't think should be in the starting line up.

C: Joe Mauer - that was a given from the start after his month of May
1B: Mark Teixeira - I think it should have been Justin, damn Yankees
2B: Dustin Pedroia - Should have been Ian Kinsler
3B: Evan Longoria - works for me
SS: Derek Jeter - Should have been Jason Bartlett as starter
Outfielders:
Jason Bay - ok
Ichiro Suzuki - doesn't surprise me
Josh Hamilton - I'm really hoping he is able to play

The group of 13 pitchers we have, I really think we have a diverse group of guys. We have the 2 best closer in baseball with Nathan and Mariano Rivera. We have 2 of the better starters in the league with Zach Greinke and Roy Halladay.

The only person not going to the game that I wish was is Slowey. I think he earned his way into that game being right up there with Greinke and Halladay. But at the same time, I'm glad he didn't get the nod for the game, because it think it would a have been harder to swallow knowing he could have gone and could have played if he wasn't on the DL.

I think it's going to be a really good game again this year. And I will make myself stay up and watch the whole thing if it goes into extra innings, especially if we get an ending like this again:

Now onto today's game:

So I was really hoping Blackie was going to be able pull off the shut out today. Maybe it's just me, but as soon as they started talking about it on TV I knew it wasn't going to happen. Just like when he was going for it against the Pirates earlier in the season, they started talking about it on the radio and he gave up the single run in the ninth.

I still love the fact that he has been able to get a complete game in 3 of his last 4 starts. It makes me very excited to see him pitch again in person on Saturday night against the White Sox. I don't worry when he is pitching, I do still get a little worried when Frankie is pitching, but we'll see how that goes for the rest of the season.

I'd like to thank Adam Everett for helping out his old team out with that error in our 6 run - 4th inning. It may not have been a sweep, but I certainly feel better getting the series after that heart breaker on Friday night.

Tomorrow: Off day!
Tuesday: Scott Baker taking on the New York Yankees and LHP CC Sabathia.

I really hate the Yankees, I'll just make that be known now.

I shall end today's post with some amusing pictures from today's game: