A Tale of Two Days

First and foremost, congrats to Dallas Braden on pitching his perfect game. Only the 2nd in A's history and the 19th in the history of the MLB. Plus seeing him with his grandma on mother's day made me tear up a little. If you haven't seen the video, please go here and watch. It's heart warming and a good way to end your Mother's day.

Secondly, happy Mother's day to all the mom's out there that read my blog. I hope you all had a wonderful day with your loved ones.

I spent a good portion of my weekend at Target Field (which would explain the lack of post since the end of the Detroit series). Don't remember much from the Thursday night game, other than we lost, it sucked, end of story.

Friday night I was supposed to go to the game, thankfully I am able to say I had a ticket to the first rained out game at Target Field. I was no looking forward to having to sit outside in the nasty weather we had on Friday and if I would have had to I would have been so missing the Dome. I think that's the only time I will miss the Dome. So Betsy and I made the trek to Target Field Saturday night to take in the postponed game.

I will say that they really need to work on the whole only opening the gates an hour before the game. When we got downtown at 5:15, they were already lined up out on the plaza past the statues waiting to get in the gate and they didn't open until an hour before the game, which means nothing opened until 6 and once you got inside you got trampled on by all the guys waiting for their fishing lures (yes I did get one and yes I am going to be the nice sister and give it to my brother. He might as well use the thing).

It was a chilly weekend at the ballpark, that's for sure. Blankets, sweatshirts, and mittens were your friends if you were on the first base side in the shade! It may have been chilly, but it was a great weekend at the ball park (at least the two games that I was at). We saw two terrific outings from Timmy and Blackie, some wonderful defensive plays from Punto and Alexi and some not so wonderful plays that won't be discussed in this blog because of who was apart of it (if you know me you should know the play I am talking about if you saw the games or heard the games on the radio).


Today was my mom's first trip to the new field so we went down early so we could walk around and I could show her my new home away from home. She agreed it is a beautiful ball park and can't wait to go back for our mother/daughter game in July!

If you would like to see more pictures I have a whole album on my Facebook located here.

Enjoy your day off tomorrow guys! Tuesday and Wednesday our dear, dear friend Ozzie and the White Sux come to town for their first visit. It will be interesting to see what Ozzie has to say about our new home since he HATED the Dome. We need to give him a reason to hate Target Field too boys!

Oh and by the way, AJ, you still suck :)

What a Win!

I want to start out with this somber note, the baseball community lost a broadcasting icon last night. Ernie Harwell passed away after his battle with cancer. I remember watching his speech last year from Comerica Park thanking all the Tigers fans for all the years of memories he would always remember. RIP Ernie, I know the Detroit Tigers and their fans will miss you dearly.

I always say when the Twins bring in a new player from an opposing team that they have to earn my respect, so JJ Hardy was no exception. Don't get me wrong he had already earned it but last nights performance earned him a ton of respect from me. From the plays in the field to the bat in his hand, that guy was on point last night! I know a lot of fans were concerned with him coming over to the organization after the seasons he's had in the past, but with how he has been playing so far this season he has really left us no reason to not trust him with this team. Yeah he may have an off day here or there, but what guy on the team doesn't? Mauer's not perfect, Cuddy's not perfect, neither is Thome and Morneau, but when he's on, he's on just like everyone else.

Plus he's pretty easy on the eyes :-)

Plus that gave Dick and Bert their exciting walk off win that they had been talking about an inning before. It's like whatever comes outta their mouth jinx's us in some way, shape, or form. They should just call the game and not say anything else, lol.

Welcome back Nick Blackburn, a well deserved complete game (his 4th in his career). I know a lot of people said putting Nick back in for the ninth was going to be a bad idea, yeah he may have gave up the game tying home run, but you know what? It was his game to lose. He went out there and pitched a smart game and I think it was only fair that he got to pitch the ninth. I know it all comes down to pitch count and what not, but when you have a pitcher who pitches a game like Nick did and then Gardy pulls them and someone else goes out there and blows it, I can't help but feel bad for whoever started that game.

I think k-bro said it best in her tweet last night "Seriously y'all? If Blackie *hadn't* gone out for the ninth, everyone would be complaining about it with him only having 85 pitches."

I'm super proud of Blackie and how he pitched last night. He went 9 innings with only 95 pitches of which 67 were strikes. He had 18 groundouts and 5 flyouts. I was really pleased with what I saw from Nick last night. He looked relaxed and fresh. Maybe we need to send a few more pitchers to Oklahoma!

So I decided after watching Cuddy last night that he's getting a couple extra in the skittle count. He's getting a plus one for that throw to first trying to get Ordonez out and he's also getting a plus one for being 5 feet short of a home run. He needs a little extra help getting out of the negative, although I have thought about wiping his slate clean and starting fresh and really keep track this time, lol.

Today we have Kevin Slowey (3-2) against Rick Porcello (2-2). Follow in Blackie's footsteps Kev, please!

Run Red Run!

I didn't have plans on even doing a blog today, but to be honest, as much as I pick on Mike Redmond and say that he needs to retire, he seems to bring a fair amount of fun to the team and the line up. We may not have the best record when he is playing, but I know he at least tries when he's at the plate.

Today was no exception. While he may be only 1 of 3 position players who were with the team at the start of the season to not have a home run, I can officially say I have never see Red Dog run so hard since I started watching the Twins than he did today going for that triple. Plus I think I got a kick out of it mostly because of the reaction Red got from the dug out when he reached, was priceless. It's always nice to see this team acting like a team, especially after the last few weeks when things weren't going right and every one was blaming everyone else.

Of course I wish I could find video to post to go along with this post because it was just too priceless, but of course I can't find one. And there aren't any pictures either. A decent play from Red, that doesn't happen very often and you can't find anything on it. Go figure!

Props to Nicky Punto too with that perfectly placed bunt during today's game too! I've missed seeing Nick being able to drop a bunt down like that, he's tried a little to hard this season to try and make those plays and it usually ends up being strike 3 or an out at first so it was nice to see a little squeeze play today from Punts!

Also since I did this post... Joe Nathan! Stop giving all us Twins fans heart attacks. Most of these games have been stressful enough as it is and then to have to worry if you're going to be able to go out there and get the save. Whatever the issue is, please get it out of your system by Tuesday when I am at the game, k? Perhaps we can even get enough run support to give you a few days off to maybe clear your head or something.

I think we were all breathing a sigh of relief when Joe finally got that last out.

I'd like to think a few of the guys read my blog last night and learned what it meant to capitalize since I was so nice to spell it out for them and give them a few pointers. It still leaves us 4.5 games outta first and a game and a half a head of Chicago, which is key with Chicago coming to town for a 3 game series starting tomorrow. Seriously though, does the Commissioner hate us that much that we have to play the Sox so many times this season? Not that I don't mind playing our rivals, but I'd like to see some other teams more often too, like Tampa Bay!

How Do You Like That One?

So I was all set to leave the game tonight after the 9th inning even if the Twins didn't get a walk off hit. I know, I know, before some starts yelling, you never leave a Twins game early, but I'm seriously still trying to catch up from sleep from this past weekend in Kansas City. This game seemed to take forever tonight, perhaps it was just because Betsy *thanks again Betsy* and I were at the game. Who knows.

What I do know is a lot of fans were getting a little restless with out sucky pitching. Does it surprise me, no, cause I was getting pissed off with it. I don't wanna say anything bad quite yet about the new guy. Could it have been nerves, yes, but I doubt it. Humber should have never been brought back up here. Way to walk in runs, you loser.


Luckie Strike (Sarah) asked me when I was going to pay up on the Skittles I've promised Cuddy... I was thinking the next Unplugged. That way he has time to add to his collection or I can take some away when he sucks lol Someone needs to hold me to this so I don't chicken out!

Now for the real star of the game.... get ready for it.... ready.... am I really going there??

Yes I am.

Delmon Young!

That's right. After all the shit I have talked about him through the season, tonight I am loving him (partly because with his walk off base hit I could go home). I wanted them to win so bad that I was fighting with myself if I was going to stay for the extra innings or not so thank you Delmon for letting me come home knowing that the game was over and that we won!

Keep the momentum going guys. We're tied for 2nd with Chicago... you CAN do this! Nickie... remember how to throw strikes and we shouldn't have a problem, k?

Sitting On Pins And Needles

So I've noticed this lately and Betsy has pointed it out too, the guys have a tendency so make us sit on pins and needles and then come out in the 6th or 7th innings, rally and win the game when it's all said and done. Which, I don't care how we win them as long as we win them so we still stand a chance of making it to October. As many times as I've said I've given up on this team, I just can't do it.

I think a lot can go back to last season when we were in the run for the title, yes Gardy did tell the team they needed to sweep Chicago, but at the same time they needed to take it game by game and that's what they did. I honestly believe they need to do that this season too. Yes we are further back this season than last, but we need to capitalize when we have runners in scoring position, etc.

We just need to take it one step at a time and this past weekend and tonight's game are steps in the right direction.

Span-man was on top of his game tonight in left field. That catch was amazing and while on one hand I think it's hilarious he ended up in the bull pen, I did not think it was funny that he literally ran into Jesse. LOL We have enough of our pitchers on the DL, we don't need to add to it. Although that could have made for a great article on the Twins site, "Crain on DL with concussion from Span"

For those that missed the play or just wanna see it again go here: Span runs it down

Tomorrow we get to see what the newbie can bring to the table... remember the only game that is accepted is your A game so you better bring it :-)

Mom, He Followed Me Home, Can I Keep Him?

Welcome to the Twins Carl!

Not only is he good looking (always a plus) but I was very impressed with how he pitched tonight. I knew nothing about him going in, but I like what I saw! I knew he was tough against Detroit, but that performance tonight was beautiful! It was nice to see a starting pitcher go deep into the ball game and give our bull pen a rest, although it was weird seeing Papa Perk warm up in the 8th and actually pitch the 9th.

I hope that the rest of our starting pitchers paid attention to Pavano's performance tonight and took notes. Of course the one that really needs it isn't even with the team right now, but we'll see how he does during his next start... if he actually gets it.

Not only was the pitching amazing tonight, the bats were blazing and the defense was on the top of their game. The 5-4-3 double play in the 5th inning was probably the best double play I have seen all season. For some reason I figured for sure Casilla would screw it up somehow, but I was pleased that he actually pulled it off and got the ball over to Justin cleanly.

I just hope and pray that by the Twins getting an ace like Pavano that this is the turn around and the boost that the team needs to push us into post-season. There was an interesting fact on Twitter this afternoon from TwinsNow that at this point in 2006 the Twins were 9.5 games outta first place... this season we are (as of right now) only 4.5 games outta first.

If any team can do it, it's the Twins. They just need a good kick in the ass to figure it all out.

It's Really Getting Old

I'm pretty sure there is nothing worse then being swept at home after you sweep a team at home. What happened to the team that swept Chicago? Where did those guys disappear to? I just LOVE a weekend filled with missed plays, poor pitching, overall sloppy baseball by a team that knows better and can play better. Apparently tough love doesn't work anymore on this team, so I'm out of options on what to try.

It was brought to my attention by Erin this morning before the game started that apparently Gardy didn't want to send Buscher to Triple A. So it wasn't Gardy that was pissed at Morneau for the comments he made, it was the front office. Thank you Bill Smith. I don't understand why the managers don't have a say in who gets sent down? Apparently Gardy wanted Casilla (I agree 100%) or GoGo, which I'm not sure what the reasoning behind that one was, but whatever.

So that got me to thinking, if the front office doesn't listen to Gardy or Andy, how long will it be before Gardy or Andy gets fed up with everything, looks at the front office and says "see ya!". You can tell just by looking at both of them in the dug out or listening to Gardy during the post game conference he's getting pissed with how this team is playing, I think everyone in Twins Territory is getting sick of it.

It was also talked about by Joe C from the Star Tribune that the team is putting out an S.O.S. for pitching help. Uh, pretty sure we needed that a LONG time ago. I have a few in mind that we could get rid of to get some help in here. Number one on that list belongs to Bobby Keppel. Something needs to be done in that department if the team has any hope of making it to the post season this year or any year from here on out for that matter.
Tonight's gold star of the game has got to be Denard Span. I missed the play when it originally happened, but believe me as soon as I got home I found it online so I could watch it. So for those that missed it, GO HERE. I feel bad for Denard because so many people were saying he'd slump this season after last year, but I love how he has proven everyone wrong and had an absolutely fantastic season :-)

Now onto Cleveland... at least we don't have to deal with Cliff Lee anymore.

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: