Proof That Pitching and Defense Don't Always Win Games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
MIN (8-6)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1		1	14	0		Final
CHW (10-4)	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0		3	11	0

This game was almost the clone of last nights game. Both teams scored a few less runs, but the basic problem remained. The Twins could not get hits when they counted. Instead of getting walked every inning, this time we got hits. But like clockwork, whenever someone reached scoring position, the bats simply died. We would have been shut out had it not been for Matt LeCroy coming through with an RBI single in the ninth inning. One clutch hit could have changed the game. If we had one last night it could be a two game sweep in our favor. That's baseball though, sometimes it just doesn't go your way. As I alluded to in the title of this post, our pitching was great. Radke gave up 3 ER in 8 innings, which made him look like Cy Young compared to last night. I really thought we had this one won once he made it through the first inning. His zero walks were a far cry from the control issues exhibited by Contreras in the last game. Now, with all this negativity coming out of this miniscule series against the Sux I should definitely mention a big positive from this game. Our defense was amazing. Torii made a great catch against the wall and Jacque made an even better diving play that really pissed off Konerko, which was fun to see. Hunter also threw out a tagging Podsednik at home plate. But the biggest part of that play was by the birthday boy himself, JOE MAUER! He managed to block the plate completely from Podsednik and put the tag on him. The play of the year so far.

Image from ESPN.com

By the way, here is a good update on Morneau and Mauers knee.

In other Twins news it appears as if with the return of Silva and Morneau (who homered in a AAA game today) we will be sending down Terry "His initials are TT for a reason" Tiffee and Dave Gassner. Gardy said that his reasons are to make sure those guys get enough play time and develop, but I suspect it is to make us endure Corky Miller some more. I wonder if this will frustrate me as much as when we would not bring Morneau up to the majors last year. Only time will tell.

Tomorrow I will be making the hour-and-a-half trek up to the Metrodome to see Johan wail on the Royals. What can I say, I am a sucker for $3 tickets and $1 hot dogs. It should provide an interesting story for tomorrow. I expect no less than 12 strikeouts for Mr. Santana. At the very least he can show that all mouth, no arm, Jose Lima what real pitching is.