Finally!
The Twins finally get a win over the Tigers after losing 11 straight to them, seven this season. Hopefully, this is will start a turnaround in the season series between these two teams. It's not like the Tigers were playing well coming in. They had just lost a three-game series to the White Sox and split a two-game series with the A's, both at home. In fact, the Tigers are 15-16 in their last 31 games dating back to June 17.
The key to the game was the pitching. Baker was terrific in his start, which was abbreviated due to being on a shorter pitch count since he was coming back from a sore arm. He obviously was feeling fine after pitching five shutout innings against the Tigers, who had averaged over seven runs per game against the Twins.
The bullpen was fine as well. It only allowed one run in four innings and never allowed the Tigers to bring the tying run to the plate, which makes it difficult to blow a lead.
The Twins had their best lineup out there since April the last two days and still only managed six runs. Saturday, they had runners all over the bases the first four innings, but had to settle for four runs as Brad Penny had two hard-hit ground balls turned into double plays behind him in key situations. Maybe the most encouraging part of the offense was getting five walks and just five strikeouts. The Twins had been struggling with walks on this homestand for the most part. They got seven in the first game and four in the second, but since then they had just 12 walks in their last eight games and 46 strikeouts before today's game. It should be no surprise that the Twins averaged just 3.2 runs in those eight games.
The Twins now have guaranteed a .500 homestand, which is by no means good, but they at least avoided the disaster of a losing homestand. They can still salvage a 7-5 homestand, which would still be disappointing after splitting eight games with the top-two teams in the division.
I listened to most of this game on my way down to Minneapolis last night. Mrs. zooomx and I made a last minute decision to catch the U2 concert. We are both huge fans, and once I saw some reasonable ticket prices on Stub Hub, we decided to check it out. All I can say is "Wow!" I had seen them back in the mid 90's, and thought they might not live up to my expectations. They sounded absolutely terrific. Bono has not lost a thing vocally. The band was super tight. Heavy rain through the second half of the concert did not slow them down one bit. In fact, I sensed they wanted to make up for the miserable weather by putting on a kick ass show. That they did. They mixed a lot of old favorites off the Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby albums with some of their newer fare. TCF stadium was great as well. A righteous concert following a Twins win over the Tigers. What a night!
[Dido]
Great show.
I'm jealous. I really was looking forward to that concert. And although I am seeing them on the 30th, seeing them on my alma maters campus in the rain would have been special.