I was around for very little of either game, so I'm working off what I'm reading here.

Game 1 looked good early.  The Dodgers had a play that should've been accompanied by Yakety Sax, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead in the first.  But Pelf gonna Pelf, and soon the Twins were down 5-2.  A two-run fifth cut it to 5-4, and with Pelf out and Samuel Deduno and his Magical Zoomball in, it looked like there might be a chance.  The Twins could do no more, though, and after a three-run seventh for the Dodgers the game was over.

One has to wonder how much longer the Twins go with Pelfrey in the rotation.  He's pitched five games and really hasn't had a good one yet, unless you count the time he pitched well for the first four innings and then blew up.  It's nothing personal--I'd love to see him pitch well--but he's showing no signs that he's going to.  Maybe he's hurt, maybe it's a mechanical problem, maybe he's just not any good any more, I have no idea.  But at this point, it's not even a matter of what the options are.  It's hard to see anyone doing much worse than Pelfrey is doing.

Using Burton in the ninth may mean that he's been relegated to mop-up duty.  I really like Burton, but that seems appropriate.  I'm not giving up on him yet--he has had a few good outings--but right now he's not someone I want to see in there with the game on the line.

In the second game, the Dodgers starter was John "Red" Patterson.  "Red" used to be a common nickname for ballplayers.  Red Adams, Red Ames, Red Ruffing, the list goes on.  But sadly, the nickname went out of fashion.  According to b-r.com, the last major league player nicknamed "Red" was Jim McGlothlin, and while I really don't remember him being called that, it's possible he was.  Rich Rollins was also supposedly called "Red", and that one I think I would remember if it had even become a popular nickname.  Before that it was Twins reliever Red Worthington, which I do remember.  At any rate, that's forty years of major league baseball without a Red, other than the ones who play for the Cincinnatis.  For that reason alone, I hope Red Patterson succeeds in the big leagues.

I hope Tim Kurkjian or somebody comes up with the last time a team walked twelve batters and did not have any of those walks come around to score.  Obviously, that many walks is not good, but I just find it humorous that the walks did not cost the Twins the game, other than that they led to numerous pitching changes.

I started to write "require numerous pitching changes", but I caught myself in time.  One of my pet peeves about the Twins announcers, both on radio and TV, is that they're always saying things like "Gardy is forced to go to his bullpen here" or "Gardy is forced to go to his bench in this situation".  No, he's not.  He's not forced to do anything.  He's making a choice.  It may be a good choice.  It may be the only reasonable choice.  But it's still a choice.  Saying that he's "forced" to do something is sloppy, and really doesn't do justice to all how hard it is to manage a ballgame and how many decisions a manager has to make.

At any rate, the Twins drop to two games below .500 at 12-14, and drop to fourth place as well.  A temporary setback, obviously.  Tonight, the Fighting Showalters come to town, with Ricky Nolasco, who has had one good outing out of five, going for Our Heroes against Ubaldo Jimenez, who has had zero good outings out of five.  This being baseball, the score tonight will probably be 2-1.  Which is fine, because we'll have the two.  We'll just have to settle for 148-14!