#-1: Twins (Last Week: -1). Well, it seems like starting pitching, which seemed to have rebounded from its awful first weeks, is back in the doldrums. Scott Diamond and Liam Hendriks, two of the AAA youngsters that have managed to stanch the bleeding, turned in mediocre performances during a 2-5 screening week. They had lost four in a row before Denard Span hit a game-winning (I still refuse to say walk-off because it sounds so juvenile) single in the 15th inning of Sunday afternoon's 5-4 victory over The Bastard Seattle Pilots.
The beginning of the streak started on Wednesday, and for that you can blame me -- well, me or P.J. Walters. I decided to scalp a ticket for that game against Philadelphia because I am still intrigued by interleague play and because after a shitty season I can probably get tickets for less than face value. I actually couldn't; the scalpers were still trying to sell above face, the bastards, so I had to go up to the ticket window and buy a (legitimate) $8 student SRO ticket. And I know that it's SRO only because after I tried sneaking into a seat at the very end of the third base line, the usher asked for my ticket. On the one hand I'm glad Target Field is enforcing seats; on the other hand -- fucking come on, it's the Twinks!
Anyway, Walters, who has been a wunderkind since being called up, proceeded to give up hits to the first four batters in the Phillies lineup, the last of which brought in two. Manager Ron Gardenhire promptly walked up to the mound and voice his concern that he wasn't even touching 90 on the club gun. Walters finally admitted that his shoulder felt sore and tight, and without registering an official third-inning, Gardy pulled him in favor of Jeff Manship, who immediately brought the book on Walters to a close by giving up a three-run home run to eight-hitter Michael Martinez and getting through the top of the first with a 6-0 Twinks deficit. Walters would later say that he started feeling something in his shoulder during warm-ups but tried to tough it out because he didn't want to burden the bullpen. What putting on such a brave face often does, of course, is burden the bullpen anyway.
And yet the damndest thing, the squad almost came back to win anyway. They chip-chip-chipped away at Fightins' starter Cole Hamels, getting to within two with two runners on and nobody out in the bottom of the seventh. But the middle of the order (Josh Willingham, Justin Morneau, Ryan Doumit) went strikeout-RBI groundout-strikeout to squash the threat. (Morneau and Doumit combined to go 0-for-7 Wednesday night. Morneau grounded out that run, but Doumit fuckin' struck out three times in all. And he's your DH??) They weren't really close to scratching another run after that and they lost 9-8. It was the Twins of old, always able to come back no matter the hole. This time, however, Walters' pud-out made the deficit too big to overcome.
Anyway, they go on the road to finish their 2012 interleague schedule. First they go to PNC Park, home to what some argue is The Best Ballpark In America ... Too Bad The Team That Plays In It's Shit, the Pittsburgh Pirates. They then visit Cincinnati and play their final National League team (unless they reach the World Series ... ha-ha-ha), the Reds.
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