The game started off great. 1 early run, batters getting on base, Ervin Santana keeping the Royals at bay. But then the bats went silent. The Royals eked out a run. Then another and another and by the time the Twins bats woke up it was too late.
Santana was tagged with the loss, but that is stupid because he pitched a great game. 7/4/2*/2*/3/3. The 2 gets an asterisk because Big Erv left the game with a runner on base and Glen Perkins imploded and allow the run to score and gave the loss to Santana.
With the Angels and Astros winning the Twins are 2 back with 2 to play. There is still a chance, but we are deep in the weeds and need to plug a 5 iron into the hole from 150 yards out. 😥
This was the first loss for the Twins when allowing less than 4 runs since Aug. 4. Didn't like that Molitor stuck with normal lineup despite facing Chris Young. RH are batting .165!!!!! against him. That's insane. Twins had 5 RH hitters in the lineup. That's basically making a lineup with 5 pitchers in it. Twins don't have a lot of good lefty options, but could have had Vargas DH, Santana play SS and Escobar play second or third, could have had Herrmann catch (although he's not hitting much better than a pitcher) and could have started Kepler in right, although would have been tough for the kid to get first ML start in such a big game. Oh well. No need to watch other games now until the Twins win. I'd like for the Twins to make Sunday's game matter.
I know the odds are long, but I'm not ready to give up just yet. This is baseball. Strange things happen all the time in baseball. Besides, none of the things that needs to happen is that unusual. The Astros need to lose two straight. I'm sure they've done that several times this season. The Angels need to go no better than 1-1. I'm sure they've done that lots of times this season. The Twins need to win two straight. They've done that several times this season, too. The odds may be against all of those things happening at the same time, but they all could happen. I'm not giving up yet.
Better odds than 2006.
And I recall making a similar comment then, that you don't give up until you have to because it's baseball and strange things happen. It was true then and it's true now.
This game was pretty much a microcosm of the season. Unexpectedly competitive, but our key guys disappointed in the end and the boys fell just short.
The Senators/Twins franchise have been playing baseball for 115 years. This year's win total is the 34rd most all time. Win out, its tied for 27th.
crazy.
of course, they've only been playing 162-game schedules for 54 seasons.
by my count, they are currently sitting on the 21st-most wins since 1960 (with 1961 the first 162-game regular season).
Still, the smoke and mirrors has produced one of the better seasons in franchise history.
First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.
Oh, this crew. The guy said Mauer hit a lot of his 2009 homers over the plexi-glass.