Jackie Robinson Day. Jack Roosevelt Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. He played 9 years in the majors and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. I could go on, but if you watched baseball today, you already know everything there is to know about #42. Sh*t, even if you didn't watch baseball today you probably already know all about Jackie. He is that significant to the Civil Rights era and the eventual improvement of race-relations in America; a true icon.  His inclusion and eventual debut in the majors was carefully orchestrated by Branch Rickey (to me, one of the more interesting characters in MLB history). In case you're still wondering, this game came nowhere near the historic magnitude of Jackie Robinson or even Branch Rickey.

The game ended poorly for Glen Perkins and he took the loss. Robbie Ross took over in the 6^th and pitched 2 scoreless inning for the Rangers to notch his 2^nd win. Through the early innings, it was the Clete Thomas and Liam Hendriks show. In their season debut for the Local 9, the former Twins draft pick (and recent Tiger) jacked a 2-run homer and had a nice (sort-of?) outfield assist, and the Aussie pitched 6 innings of 1 run ball. After completing 7, the Twins had a 3-1 lead and the top of the order due up. It should have been enough to get the Twins back in the win column, ready to salvage the rubber match of the series against the Dallas, Texas Rangers of Arlington.  Except it wasn't...Perkins started the 8^th throwing batting practice, continuing his rough weekend. A walk to Kinsler followed by an RBI triple from Andrus pulled them within 1. Then a 2-run, no-doubt smash (est. 449 ft.) to right center from Hamilton led to a 4-3 lead for the Rangers and a an apparently not-quick-enough hook for the Stillwater native. Burnett came in and faced 4 batters to close out the inning without further bleeding but the damage was done.

The bottom of the 8^th began in a promising manner as Span lobbed a single into left to lead the inning off. Unfortunately, Carroll promptly popped his bunt attempt into a double-play that "wasn’t" and Mauer ripped a ball to Napoli at first to start a double play that was. It was the 13^th DP they've hit into this season.

Maloney pitched a clean top of the 9^th and Twitchy (0-2) came in for the bottom of the inning. He struck out Justin on a ball 4 slider in the dirt and got Willingham to pop out to center on the first pitch. Parmelee couldn’t find the magic and followed suit, popping out to center.

Consensual Pork notched a hit to extend his streak to 9 games…for those of you keeping score, that’s at least 1 hit in every game as a member of the Twins. Hey, it's the little things - right?