An Epic Tuesday

There was a lot of great baseball yesterday.

My plan was to tape the game and watch it after work, but it was nearly impossible to avoid spoilers. I wore headphones almost the entire afternoon, but I still overheard two crucial sentences from the cube next door: "Tigers lost" and "Granderson's hit a homerun". Huh? It was rather incongruous, but the bottom line was that the Tigers lost.

So, I watched the game after work with a sense of dread. I held out hope that perhaps I misheard the phrase "Tigers lost," but alas... as Span ran down Santiago's bid for a 9th inning walk-off hit, I knew they were dead. Neither team was terribly adept at hitting with runners in scoring position. The Twins were 1-7, but the Tigers had double the chances. 2-14. Ugh. They let the Twins off the hook, and, in the top of the 10th, the Twins made them pay. Stellar performances by Porcello and Miner were wasted. The Twins starter, Nick Blackburn, had an interesting comment after the game. When asked if he thought the Tigers were pressing, he said, "Yeah, a little. They're swinging at bad pitches."

With the Twins climbing to one game behind, Verlander pitched in what he called "the most important regular season game I've ever thrown" (same link). Thanks to an awesome 2-out hits by Ordonez and Inge, the Tigers had a 5-0 lead. It seemed the game was in the bag with Verlander throwing 100mph darts. Yet, the Twins clawed their way back. They forced a 33-pitch inning in the 6th, notching two runs. They got two more in the 8th, compliments of Mauer and Kubel. But Verlander buckled down and got that final out on his 129th pitch, maintaining a one-run lead. Granderson then tacked-on one more with a HR blast in the bottom of the 8th.

So Rodney took the mound in the 9th, leading 6-4. It was painful to watch. The twins didn't hit the ball hard, but they did get two hits, scoring one run. The RBI double came courtesy of Nick Punto, the man at the bottom of the batting order. His long fly ball flew just over Granderson's glove, who was playing shallow in center. With two outs and the tying run (Punto) on 2nd, Denard Span stepped up to the plate. He'd been hitting .438 (!!!) against the Tigers this season. Rodney somehow got the kid to pop up to left field. Game over. The Tigers split the opening day.

Up tonight is Eddie Bonine against Tiger killer Carl Pavano. Against the Tigers, Pavano sports a 1.69 ERA and a 4-0 record. But ya can't count out Bonine. Despite only three major league starts, Bonine recently added a knuckleball to his repertoire. It had the White Sox baffled in his last start. He actually had a no-hitter through five innings. On paper, this game leans decidedly in the Twins favor, but the last few weeks have been so unpredictable. If Bonine stays loose and relishes the moment, he may just throw a gem. Or the lefty-heavy lineup could knock his knuckleball out of the park. Let's hope for the former.