‘The Journey is about to begin’
October 20, 2009
Sport Illustrated reports that the Twins $3.15 million prospect, Dominican Miguel Angel Sano has been approved for his work visa in the United States, though MLB officials still have not verified Sano’s age.
While Sano’s talent was abundant, so too were questions about his age and identity. His 6-foot-3, 190-pound frame and precocious skills on the field fueled questions about whether Sano was really the 16-year-old he claimed to be. Those concerns echoed louder when Major League Baseball, which conducts extensive investigations to help prevent teams from being defrauded, issued a report concluding that Sano’s identity was verified but his age was “undetermined.”
Sano will be brought into the states next spring. He told ESPN in September that he hopes to get to the majors in two years. Can fans wait that long for a decent middle infielder?
ALDS Game 3: Yanks complete ALDS sweep
October 11, 2009
The final game was played at the Metrodome and it ended with the Twins losing Game 3 of the ALDS to the New York Yankees by a score of 4-1 which eliminated them from the postseason.
Carl Pavano was on the mound for the Twins to face his former team and started out by retiring the first eight batters he faced and cut though the Yankees lineup by giving up only three hits while striking out seven though six innings.
Pavano finally got to work with a lead as the Twins put a run on the board in the bottom of the sixth off an RBI single from Joe Mauer that scored Denard Span from second base to break the scoreless tie.
The Yankees would finally figure Pavano out in the seventh as Alex Rodriguez hit a solo home run to tie the game at one. Two batters later, Jorge Posada would send a ball over the wall in left field to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
The Twins had a chance to tie the game in the eighth after Nick Punto hit a lead off double to center field. Punto, however, would run through a sign to hold up at third on a single from Denard Span and be caught in a run down between third and home.
The Twins would run into problems in the ninth and Ron Mahay would walk Mark Teixeira after getting Johnny Damon to strike out. Jon Rauch and Jose Mijares also walked their respective batters to load the bases with one out.
Joe Nathan would come in and give up back-to-back singles to Posada and Robinson Cano to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead before striking out Nick Swisher and Melky Cabrera to end the inning.
Michael Cuddyer started the ninth with a single to right but Mariano Rivera would get Jason Kubel and Delmon Young to strike out and Brendan Harris hit a ground ball to Derek Jeter to end the game and put an end to the 2009 season for the Twins.
Attendance: 54,735
ALDS Game 2: Text Messages
October 9, 2009
Throughout the course of the regular season, the two writers of Twins Digest, Andrew Alba and Jason Graening, have shared their in-game thoughts with one another via text messages.
With the Twins making it to the postseason, emotions were high as the Twins traveled to New York to face the Yankees. As Game 2 of the ALDS progressed, the two fans went through a bevy of emotions over the span of three hours.
The following is the series text messages (edited for content) sent between Andrew and Jason as they watched a two run lead turn into a one run defeat at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.
After five innings
AA 6:37 PM: As usual, Blackburn pitching well only to have the bats fail to score RISP!
JG 6:38 PM: What else would you expect?
Top of the eighth
AA 7:55 PM: RISP with Punto up. Queue sadtrombone.com
JG 7:56 PM: Now batting, number 8, rally killer… Nick Punto!
AA 7:58 PM: Have never enjoyed being wrong so much! (Nick Punto’s RBI single)
JG 7:58 PM: No kidding.
JG 8:02 PM: That ball was fisted for an RBI. (Denard Span RBI single)
AA 8:03 PM: I am sick of that term on TBS!
Bottom of the eighth
AA 8:07 PM: What I wouldn’t give to have Matty go 1-2-3.
AA 8:11 PM: Yes! Now it is up to Nathan!
Top of the ninth
AA 8:14 PM: Nathan’s going to have his work cut out for him in the 9th… Tex,A-Rod and Matsui.
AA 8:17 PM: Kubel needs to get back to the dome. He is horrible @ Yankee stadium. (After Jason Kubel’s fourth strike out of the game)
Bottom of the ninth
AA 8:29 PM: Nathan looks rattled already.
AA 8:32 PM: What do you do? Can’t beat the F**KING Yankees! (After Nathan gave up 2-run homer to Alex Rodriguez to tie the game)
Top of the tenth
AA 8:40 PM: What are our odds now in extra innings? I can handle Wednesday’s loss, but this one will sting for a while!
JG 8:41 PM: Nathan is on my s**t list.
AA 8:42 PM: He has been on mine since the end of August.
AA 8:45 PM: Gardenhire better not even put Nathan in with the Yankees again. His numbers are horrible.
JG 8:46 PM: I hope Span fists one over first base.
AA 8:46 PM: lol
AA 8:47 PM: I hope Gardenhire fists Nathan in the 10th.
AA 8:51 PM: Please get a hit Orlando Cabrera! (Two on, two out in which Cabrera would hit a fly ball to right field to end the inning)
Bottom of the tenth
AA 9:03 PM: Who’s team is he on? (Nathan’s failed pick off attempt at second base)
AA 9:07 PM: Crain has a good pick off move & should have come in.
Top of the eleventh
AA 9:10 PM: Twins are killing me! I wish they could just win or lose!
AA 9:20 PM: Nice they can have an extra umpire right there to MISS the call. (Joe Mauer’s ground rule double ruled a foul ball)
AA 9:23 PM: Bull s**t Delmon Young.
AA 9:24 PM: Bull s**t Gomez.
That was the final text message of the night as the Twins had just left the bases loaded in the top of the eleventh. Shortly after, the Yankees would win Game 2 in dramatic fashion with a walk off home run from Mark Teixeria. It was the fourth walk off win the Yankees had over the Twins this season in New York.
ALDS Game 2: Yankees walk off in 11th to win Game 2
October 9, 2009
The Twins just cannot win in Yankee Stadium. The Twins had the game in their hands before the Yankees tied it in the ninth and won the game with a walk off home run, the fourth walk off the Twins have lost at Yankee Stadium this year and have gone winless in six attempts.
Nick Blackburn and AJ Burnett found themselves locked in a pitchers duel with both keeping the base runners to a minimum. Burnett, though, would hit two consecutive batters, Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez, in the fourth to put runners on first and second. Matt Tolbert would connect with a single to right but a base running blunder by Gomez would yield the third out before Young would cross the plate.
Brendan Harris replaced an injured Matt Tolbert in the sixth and connect with a two out triple to score Delmon Young from second to break the scoreless tie. Nick Punto failed in extending the lead by grounding out to second base to end the inning.
As with Game 1, the Yankees wouldn’t let the Twins have the lead for long as Alex Rodriguez hit a two out RBI single to score Derek Jeter from second to tie the game at one. The game would remain tied until the Twins came alive in the eighth.
With two outs in the eighth, Carlos Gomez would draw a walk and advance to third on a single from Brendan Harris. Nick Punto hit an RBI single to center to give the Twins the lead and Denard Span knocked in Harris on a single to right to give the Twins a 3-1 lead.
Jon Rauch pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning in 12 pitches before turning it over to Joe Nathan in the ninth. Nathan would give up a single to Mark Teixeira to start out the ninth before giving up a 2-run homer to Alex Rodriguez to tie the game at three. Nathan retired the next three batters to take this game into extra innings.
In the tenth, the Twins advanced Nick Punto to third with two out but failed to knock in a run after Orlando Cabrera hit a fly ball to right field. The Yankees also squandered an opportunity to score after getting Brett Gardner to third base after a failed pick off attempt that sailed into center field. Nathan then intentionally walked Derek Jeter before being replaced by Jose Mijares, who got Johnny Damon to hit into a double play to end the inning.
The Twins were the victims of a bad call from third base line umpire Phil Cuzzi, who ruled a ground rule double from Joe Mauer a foul ball. Replays showed the ball landed nearly a foot fair, however, Mauer got on base with a single to center. Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer loaded the bases with no out and again failed to score when the bottom of the line up were retired in order.
The Yankees would finally put the game away in walk off fashion when Mark Teixeira hit a home run off Mijares that barely cleared the fence in left field to give the Yankees a 4-3 victory and take a 2-0 lead in the ALDS.
Attendance: 50,006 (Yankee Stadium)
Could Gardenhire use more patience?
October 8, 2009
Yogi Berra is credited for saying “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.” Perhaps we here tend to be too mental.
It is easy for most of us arm chair managers to sit and criticize managers and players, so after watching yesterdays game, it was decided that some time to cool off would be in order before remarking on manager Ron Gardenhire’s decision during yesterdays game.
Watching some of the Twins post game shows, it appeared most analyst were making an argument that his decision was the right one. What decision is that? The decision to remove Duensing from the game in the 5th inning.
Duensing pitched well and if you look at the ball placement of the hits he did give up, he was working the plate like a veteran.
Here is a reap:
In the first inning gave up a hit to Derek Jetter on a pitch that was kept low and inside.
In the third inning Melky Cabrera took a low outside pitch and ended up with a single on what would have likely been a ball. Derek Jetter then took a belt high inside slider on the yard to tie the game.
In the fourth inning, Jorge Posada took a 4-seam fastball that was in the upper inner corner and drove it to short right field for a hit. Two batters later Nick Swisher took low slider (good pitch except Swisher likes them) and drove it down the third base line to score a run.
In the fifth his only mistake was to let Jetter walk. He followed the walk up with two outs and was abruptly replaced by Fransico Lirano after 4.2 innings. Of course as anyone who watched the game knows, Lirano gave up a two run home run to the very next batter.
Duensing had 79 pitches in 4.2 innings with 59 of them being strikes and 3 strike outs. The only walk he had was to Jetter who already had two hits in the game. So why did Gardenhire take Duensing out?
Watching the post game they showed a graphic that showed the Yankees were 2-9 during the first trip through the order and then 4-9 during the second trip. What they didn’t say is that of the four hits during the second trip, only one was off of a ball left up. All the other pitches were on the corners or out of the strike zone.
Earlier in the year, some arm chair coaches were wondering if Gardenhire wasn’t leaving his pitchers in too long. Perhaps Gardenhire was worried about leaving his rookie out there too long or perhaps he saw something in Duensing that we couldn’t see on the television, but either way, the decision to remove Duensing stings a bit. We will have to see how Gardenhire manages his pitchers for the rest of the series as he has made some poor choices in the recent week in the opinion of many arm chair managers out there.
ALDS Game 1: Yanks win first game of ALDS
October 7, 2009
Less than 24 hours after winning the AL Central Division title in a tiebreaker against the Tigers, the Twins found themselves at Yankee Stadium for Game 1 of the ALDS to face the New York Yankees, who hold the best regular season record in baseball.
The Twins were the first to strike and got on the board in the third inning when Michael Cuddyer hit an RBI single to score Orlando Cabrera from third. Joe Mauer would score shortly after when Jorge Posada would let a ball fly out of his glove and into the corner to make it 2-0.
The Yankees wouldn’t let the Twins hold on to the lead for long as Derek Jeter would hit a 2-run homer off Brian Duensing to tie the game in the bottom half of the third. In the bottom of the fourth, Nick Swisher would hit a two out double down the left field line that scored Robinson Cano.
With the lead in hand, the Yankees wouldn’t look back and extended their lead in the fifth off an two out RBI single from Alex Rodriguez. Francisco Liriano replaced Duensing after that single and immediately gave up a 2-run run homer to Hideki Matsui, the first batter he faced, to give the Yankees a 6-2 lead.
The Yankees would add one more run in the seventh as Rodriguez would plate his second RBI of the game on a line drive to right that bounced off the wall.
Mariano Rivera would close out the game in the ninth and picked up two strike outs to give the Yankees the first win of the best-of-five series.
Attendance: 49,464 (Yankee Stadium)
Mauer earns third batting title
October 7, 2009
Joe Mauer missed the month of April but he didn’t seem to miss a beat as he went on to win his third batting title in four years. Mauer hit a career high .365 batting average, which beat out Ichiro Suzuki who hit .352.
Mauer’s third batting title is historic as he has surpassed both Bill Dickey (1936) and Mike Piazza (1997) for the highest batting average by a catcher. Dickey and Piazza were tied at .362.
His three batting titles also ties the total amount of batting titles won by other catchers combined. Ernie Lombardi won titles in 1938 and 1942 and Bubbles Hargrave won one in 1926.
Mauer also became the first player to earn back-to-back batting championships since Nomar Garciaparra did it in 1999 and 2000.
Twins: 2009 AL Central Champions
October 6, 2009
It took an extra game and extra innings, but the Twins are once again the American League Central Champions after defeating the Detroit Tigers at the Metrodome on Tuesday night.
The Twins went 16-4 over the final three weeks of the regular season and found themselves tied for first with the Tigers after the final game of the season. A tie breaker was in store, and in a game some will call one of the greatest games to be played in the Metrodome, the Twins won the see-saw battle in 12 innings by a score of 6-5.
The victory was an exclamation point to an improbable run where the Twins, who were seven games out of first place at the beginning of September, overcame all of the odds by scratching and clawing their way to first place. The win gave the Twins their fifth AL Central Title in the past eight years.
On the other side, the Tigers completed a downfall of monumental proportions on Tuesday. Detroit had been in first place since May 10th and became the first team to ever lose the division after being three games ahead of the second place team with four games left in the season.
The Twins now head to New York to take on the Yankees in the ALDS while the Tigers head home after a disappointing end to their season.
Congratulations, Minnesota Twins.
Game 163: Twin defeat Tigers in 12 to win AL Central
October 6, 2009
Detroit @ Minnesota (AL Central Tie Breaker)
For the second season in a row, the Minnesota Twins found themselves playing in an extra game to decide who would walk away with the AL Central Title. Last year they came up short in a 1-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox, this year, however, the Twins topped the Detroit Tigers in extra innings to win their first division title since 2006.
The Tigers wouldn’t go without a fight and took an early lead in the third inning when Magglio Ordonez hit an RBI single to center that scored Curtis Granderson from second. Four pitches later, Miguel Cabrera would take Scott Baker deep to center for a 2-run homer to make it a 3-0 game.
The Twins wouldn’t quit, though, as Matt Tolbert would work his way around the bases in the home half of the third inning and score on throwing error on a pickoff attempt to put the Twins on the board to make it 3-1.
Aside from the throwing error, rookie pitcher, Rick Porcello, was nearly flawless on the mound and held the Twins to just three hits while striking out seven in the first five innings of work.
Porcello would run into problems in the sixth, however, as Jason Kubel would pull the Twins to within one with a solo home run to center. Zach Miner replaced Porcello in the sixth and loaded the bases but retained the lead by getting Tolbert to pop out to center for the final out of the inning.
The Twins would finally take the lead in the seventh that was started by a single from Nick Punto. Two batters later, Orlando Cabrera would hit a homer just over the wall in left field to give the Twins a 4-3 lead.
The lead wouldn’t last long for the Twins, though, as Magglio Ordonez would hit the second pitch of the eighth inning over the wall in left to tie the game at four. Pitcher, Matt Guerrier, would give up two more walks in the eighth before Ron Gardenhire went to Joe Nathan, who finished out the inning by getting Brandon Inge to pop out and striking out Gerald Laird.
The game would stay tied and head into extra innings where the Tigers drew first blood by scoring a run on an RBI double from Brandon Inge. Michael Cuddyer, though, would start the bottom half of the inning with a triple to center and scored on a single from Matt Tolbert.
The Tigers had a chance to take the lead once again in the 12th inning when they loaded the bases with one out. With one out, Bobby Keppel got out of the inning unscathed when he got Brandon Inge to hit in a force out and got Gerald Laird to strike out swinging to end the inning.
A couple of unlikely heroes pushed the Twins ahead in the bottom half of the inning when Carlos Gomez got the started by hitting a single to left field. Three batters later, Alexi Casilla would hit a bloop single to right field that score Gomez from second to score as the Twins came out to field to celebrate the victory and the savor the glory that comes with winning the division title.
The crowd of 54,088, the largest crowd for a regular season game, went wild as the Twins grabbed their fifth division title this decade and completed one of the most improbable comebacks of all time.
The Twins, however, didn’t have much time to celebrate as they have to open Game 1 of the ALDS in New York in less than 24 hours.
Attendance: 54,088
Tigers-Twins: Tiebreaker Tuesday
October 4, 2009
For the second year in a row, the American League Central Division Title will be decided in game 163. For the second year in a row, the Twins are one of the teams playing in the tiebreaker. This year, however, it is at their house and it is against the Detroit Tigers.
Who would have thought after last year’s heartbreaking loss to the Chicago White Sox that the Twins would find themselves in the same position once again, vying for one of the eight spots in the postseason? Not to mention that the likes of a downfall of this magnitude that the Tigers are going through has never been seen before.
Thankfully after last year’s tiebreaker, MLB decided to remove the archaic coin-flip to determine who gets home field advantage and instead looks at the head-to-head record between the two teams. With the Twins being ahead of the Tigers 11-7, it means there will be at least one more farewell game at the Dome. The same Metrodome where the Tigers went 2-9 this season.
Twins should have momentum on their side, not to mention tens of thousands of screaming fans that will be in attendance. They are sending Scott Baker out to the mound, who hasn’t been the greatest of pitchers against the Tigers, but did hold them only one run of five hits just four games ago.
On the other side will be rookie, Rick Porcello, pitching for the Tigers. Porcello has had an outstanding season and this game alone could seal the deal for Rookie of the Year honors. Porcello faced the Twins four times this season and holds a 1-2 record with a 3.12 ERA. Both of the losses, along with seven of the eight earned runs given up, came at the Metrodome.
Once again the Twins showed their grit and determination as a team and held on as many around them wrote them off. As a famous postseason commercial always says, “you cannot script October.”
Nobody would have ever written this as part of the script.
