Twins Sisters

Tuesday night--Twins 6  White Sox 5

What did A.J. do to his hair? Is he trying to start a Billy Idol cover band?   What a dope.

Anyway, back to last night's game. Happy Birthday to me! I'll tell ya, it didn't look good there for awhile.  The Big Hit Of The Game was Justin's base clearing double in the Twins 5 run 5th inning. Tricia, Twins Kid, my BFF Denise and I had a great time!  We were sitting in the upper deck, but it was behind home plate so we could see everything pretty well. Home run porch is cool except that it is impossible to tell balls from strikes.

Other things to mention:
**Pudge was traded to the Yankees.  I don't understand WHY the Tigers did that.  Giving up a sure fire Hall of Famer for a prospect? The Tigers got the rubber end of the plunger in that deal.
**Alexi is on the 15 day DL. Another finger injury. I hear he tore the nail right off.  That makes me cringe. Gross!
**Adam Everett is back! I don't know why, but I like him. Maybe he can do in the infield in Alexis' absence what Denard is doing in the outfield during Cuddy's time away.
**Delmon really needs to stop swinging at the first pitch every single time he's up to bat!
**I'm flipping tired. I didn't go to bed until after 11:00, but it was well worth it!

Go Twins!!!!!!

**Becca**

Twins 6, White Sox 5

We all really enjoyed the game last night.  We sat in section 224, which is behind home plate but on the upper level.  It felt like we climbed 224 stairs to get to our seats.  It's worth it though.  It's a suprisingly good place to sit, considering how high up it is.  There was a little boy sitting behind us who had a really loud, ear-splitting voice.  A couple of times I was sure my eardrums had burst.  But no, that's just me being overly dramatic.  

I think there were a bunch of contestants from local beauty pageants at the Dome, because there were girls wearing sashes and tiaras all over the place.   "Hi, I'm competing for Miss Spring Lake Park!"  "You are?  Cool!  I'm in the Miss Hopkins pageant!"  I shouldn't make fun.  I'm sure it's a big deal for those girls.  The thing is, and this is my hang-up, all the sash-ed and tiara-ed girls looked like the ones I went to high school with who thought they were all that.  For instance, we all got to sign a senior year t-shirt.  I signed my name once, in a normal size.  Some people signed their names twice, in really BIG letters.  Gosh, they probably would've been in the senior class photo twice if they could've figured out a way to do that!  I am not still annoyed over that, because high school was a loooong time ago, but I do remember it. 

Becca's friend Denise came to the game too.  I asked her if she goes to games to humor Becca, or if she likes them too.  She says she likes them, but not as much as we do.  Part of the fun for her is to see Becca get aggravated when fans from the opposing teams sit in our section.  Unfortunately for her, there was nary a Sox fan that I could see or hear in section 224. 

As for the game, we sat and watched for four innings, and the Twins offense didn't do anything.  La la la.  Glen Perkins got charged with a balk, a run scored, and later on he gave up a solo homer.  Then things got moving in the bottom of the fifth.  Five runs scored, three of them off Justin's bases-clearing double.  Is it time to get another 33 for MVP campaign rolling? 

Top of the ninth, in comes Joe Nathan to wrap up the game.  Woo hoo!  Two  easy outs.  Then a full count and Nick Swisher hit a solo home run.   Circle those bases, Swisher, and enjoy that meaningless 9th inning home run!  Thank goodness for that insurance run later in the game.  Yup, it was all good.  The next batter was out on just a few pitches.  Note to Joe:  Please stop giving up home runs at games we attend.  Thank you.  (He did it in Milwaukee, too.)

Now the Twins are only down by half a game.  Yay! 

Can they win tonight?  I don't know.  Livan scares me sometimes.  Still, he's had good success at the Dome.  Is it due to luck?  Skill?  Voodoo?  Unbelievable run support?  I don't know, and I don't care. 

A few miscellaneous tidbits:  It looks like Alexi Casilla might be out for the season.  I hope not.  When he got hurt on Monday night, it just looked like a tiny boo-boo.  There are people on the Star Tribune blogs declaring the season over.  No playoff chances for us. Well, it stinks if he's done for the season, but really?  I don't think we can write off the rest of the season because of this.

I saw a woman wearing a Batgirl No Ass Bats t-shirt.  I wish she were still blogging. 

This is not news anymore, but whoever chose this song for Mike Redmond's walk-up song is brilliant.  A casual fan would not get the joke, but clearly none of us around here are casual fans.  I wonder if Redmond himself thought of it, or if someone's having some fun with him. 

Go Twins!

--Tricia--

Twins 7, White Sox 0

That game last night was all kinds of entertaining.  It was entertaining enough to warrant bullet points.  How great is that?

*Kevin Slowey pitched a complete game shutout against the Sox.  Excellent!  Sure, people said.  Any yahoo can pitch a shutout against the Royals.  (Not me.  I was impressed when he did it against the Royals too.) But this was against the Sox and their legion of power hitters.  That must impress even the cool, suave and hard-to-impress crowd.

*Congratulations to Denard Span for hitting his first home run in the big leagues!  Cool.  Does anyone else think he bears a passing resemblance to Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air?  Maybe I'm just weird.

Exhibit A: 

Exhibit B:

*Why boo A.J.? I guess that weird yellow head is a good reason, but that's about it.  He hasn't played for the Twins since 2003.

*It was all kinds of funny when Nick Swisher lost his glove into the football seats when he was trying to catch Justin's homer.  It was even funnier that they sent an old usher out to climb over the seats to get it. 

*Jermaine Dye knew that foul ball wasn't a home run before the umps did.  He just stood there and then ran the bases half-heartedly. 

*Yay!  Go Go not only played last night, he got a hit. I cringed when I saw the replay of him smacking into that wall. Yikes.  I'm so glad that injury didn't turn out as bad as it looked.

*I am not going to try to interpret stats anymore.  I stink at it.   However...I thought going into this series against the Sox that if the Twins pitchers could keep the ball in the park they'd have a good chance of winning.  I was right about that.  Apparently the Sox have gone 5 and 22 in games where they haven't  homered.  (According to a little stat box that FSN was kind enough to pop up on the screen.)  Can you imagine what the Twins win-loss record would be like if they couldn't win without home runs?)

Back to work for me.  We're off to the game tonight.  May this one be half as entertaining as last night's.

Also:  Happy Birthday, Becca!  The Twins won on your b-day last year, let's see if they can do it again this year.

--Tricia--

Saturday--Twins 11  Indians 4
Sunday ---Twins   4   Indians 2

One thing I have to ask before it totally slips my mind....why where Marney and Company at Wisconsin Dells over the weekend? It is just  me or is it odd that they would be reporting about the Twins from a resort town in Wisconsin? Two things come to mind: Their bus broke down on the way to Ohio, so they thought, "What the hell? It's hot out so let's just relax and do our show from here!"  Or maybe, and probably the more likely explaination is that our friends to the east want us to know the Dells were still up and running after all that terrible flooding earlier this summer and thought that since lots of people watch baseball it would be a good way to get the word out. I dunno.

I loved the early part of the game on Saturday. Slugfest In Cleveland. Once it was 9-0 in the 4th inning I started to get kind of bored with it. I started to channel surf and read some and did junk around the apartment. The highlight was Brian Buscher's 3 run homer. Sweet!!! Apparently it was the Twins first 3 run homer since July 4. Seriously. Who keeps track of this stuff?

Today's game, though not a slugfest was in ways more exciting. For the longest time I thought that the offense was going to do to Nick Blackburn today what they did to Scotty Baker LAST Sunday. No, don't lose 1-0 two Sundays in a row!!!!!  Thanks to a "doink"  (thanks Dick and Bert for that word) hit by Craig Monroe that resulted in a double the Twins. Reyes didn't help matters when he tied the game up. But as usual Mr. Frown came in and saved the day in the top of the 9th inning. Come on Justin! You know we love you!

"I was not in the mood for extra innings today! And how many times do I have to tell you to get that damn camera out of my face!"

The White Sox will be in town for a four game series starting tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it! Those games are always a blast! Tricia,  Twins Kid, my BFF Denise and I will be at the game Tuesday night to cheer them on.

Just please, PLEASE don't get swept. And if A.J gives you any lip when you are up to bat, tell them that Becca says, "STFU!"

**Becca**

Twins 4  Indians 5  (Friday night)

I heard the first few innings of the game on the radio as I was on my way home from the lake with my parents and younger sister.  Poor Go Go. I'm glad I was not watching on TV because I'm sure that they showed him crash into the wall and then collapse onto the field about 813 times. John Gordon and Dan Gladden described it in enough detail to make me cringe. So I said, "They will send Jason Kubel to the outfield now."  A minute later that's exactly what they did. My Mom asked me how I knew they were going to do that.  I just shrugged and said, "I don't know. I just did." 

Cliff Lee really handcuffed the Twins batters throughout the game. Little by little they chipped away and then came Justin's fantastic 2 run homer in the 9th inning. That made the game 5-4 and I thought they had a real chance. Delmon hit a double and had Mike Redmond's hit had NOT been caught I think it would have been enough to tie it up. Alas, it was not meant to be.  I wanted Nick Punto to get a hit sooooooo bad to score Delmon from 3rd. I think it is interesting that Casey Blake was not there to cover the bag.

Since I was at the lake and was away from my TV, I listened to the Twins and Yankees in bits and pieces.  Terrible!  Maybe they played like crap because they knew I couldn't watch and they missed me. (Not really, of course!) 

I suspect we will be Gomezless for the rest of the series. Nothing is broken, strained or sprained so hopefully he will be back in a few days.  Get well soon!  

**Becca** 

I've been feeling cranky all day.  I don't have any specific reason, really, and I'm feeling better now.  There's just a touch of residual crankiness left.  We all know the Twins got humiliated in NY, and I just don't see any need to re-live that baseball nightmare. 

I am trying to come up with some intelligent baseball discussion, or even something silly and amusing that is not baseball related, but I'm coming up empty-handed here.  Maybe my brain is all fried from the 8,000 lot acquisition worksheets I did at work today.  And yes, that's as tedious as it sounds, but it's also an important part of the job.  **Sigh.**  Maybe I should buy a Powerball ticket.  If I win, I'll take all our loyal readers to a game.  If you live outside the Twin Cities, I'll rent a limo for you. We'll get tickets right behind home plate, and the beer and hot dogs will be on me. 

I'll leave you with a video of one of my favorite songs ever. 

Twins 2, Yankees 8

Just a few quick notes on last night's game, because I didn't watch most of it, and I have to go dry my hair and leave for work after I type this entry. 

Hello, guys?  It's Yankee Stadium, not some kind of holy place where you should whisper and look around in awe.  There's no reason at all that you shouldn't be able to play good baseball there.  Maybe next year will be better.  There'll be a new stadium that won't have all the aura, mystique and ghosts of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig running around freaking you out.  Let's hope.

I decided last night that I really don't like Robinson Cano.  I've never even heard him talk, but I don't like him.  He looks smug and full of himself.  Comes up to bat looking smug.  The ump calls a strike and he looks smug.  Then he gets a hit, a single, and he looks like he just cured cancer or brokered world peace.  Bleah!

Instead of watching the whole game, my husband, Twins Kid his buddy and I all went to the Anoka County Fair.  It was a good time. I love county fairs.  The best part was Orange Whip, the bandshell act.  I'm a sucker for a good cover band, and I thought these guys were excellent.  There weren't many people listening, which is too bad.  I think people were really missing out, going on the upside down turn around in circles barf rides instead of listening to the band.  They did a great rendition of Eye of the Tiger, and a phenomenal one of The Devil Went Down to Georgia.  I'm not the kind of person to turn into a groupie, (which would be weird for a local cover band anyway) but I might have to go catch another one of their shows.  There's almost nothing better than sitting outside on a warm summer night listening to music. 

Whoa.  I'll be late to work if I don't wrap this up now.  Let's all hope the Twins can manage their once-yearly obligatory win at Yankee Stadium this afternoon. 

--Tricia--

Rangers 1, Twins Zero, Zip, Zilch

Poor Scotty Baker.  Check out his stats here.  He's had 10 starts this season and he's given up only 18 runs.  That's crazy good.  I don't know why the team gives Livan so much run support and then skunks Scott.  What's up with that?  They need to conserve some of their energy.  Why didn't they  save a couple of those bombs they hit on Saturday and hit them on Sunday instead?  Yeah...I know it doesn't work that way.  Wins are not the be-all end-all stat for pitchers.  No matter how good a pitcher is, he can't win a game all on his own. 

Game in progress:  The Yankees are giving the Twins a big kick in the butt.  The score is 9-3 in the bottom of the 6th, so I had to change the channel.  Here's hoping the Yankees use up all of their offensive firepower in tonight's game.

--Tricia--

p.s.  Blech!  Is it just me, or is Sidney Ponson even homlier in a Yankees uniform?   

Twins 6  Rangers 0  (Friday night)

I'm always a little bit concerned after the All Star Break. The majority of our summer friends got a nice vay-cay, and good for them for that, but I wonder that they will lose their hitting, pitching and fielding mojo while they are away.

Nope, didn't happen.

Dick and Bert said that since 2002, the year Gardy took over for Tom Kelly, the Twins on average play .500 baseball or better after the All Star Break. I don't see 2008 being an exception.

It was another grand night where everyone chipped in. Delmon went 4-4, Brendan had a hit or two as did Brian Buscher.  I know Joey and Justin scored but for the life of me I don't remember how they got on base.

One thing is clear: The Twins are having another magical season that is leaving their fans on the edge of their seats. Maybe they will make it to the post season, maybe not. No matter what we are being taken on an amazing baseball adventure that will keep us wanting more!

Delmon Young batted a thousand last night. What a great way to back up Glen Perkins scoreless 6 innings!

**Becca**