Date: 9/8/09

Opponent: Toronto Blue Jays

Home/Away: Away

Starting Pitcher: Duensing

Final Score: L 6-3

Record: 69-69

Best Moment: It looked like a good game for us for the first 5 and a half innings. But that 6th inning was brutal. Giant Man surrendered 6 runs in the 6th (3 inherited runners and then 3 of his own). It was made even more painful thanks to the bottom of the Toronto lineup delivering the knockout punch. John McDonald, who has 11 career home runs, hit a 3-run homer to untie the game to almost double his RBI total. Yuck. And now we get the stellar match-up of Carl Pavano v. Roy Halladay. I'm feeling really good about this game...

Most Questionable Moment: It's generally not a good idea to pick up fair balls, Toronto security guard. Just FYI.

Worst Moment: You know what pisses me off? We're the most average, mediocre team in all of baseball. I would much rather have an outright bad team. At least you know what you are getting with a bad team. And there's humor to be found in being really, really terrible. But the Twins can't even do me that courtesy. No, they have to alternate flashes of brilliance with flashes of bumbling incompetence as they cling to .500 like a zebra mussel.

Quotations of the Day:

• "I sucked. I got behind a couple hitters, and if I tried to make a pitch it seemed like if I left it in the zone, it was up. I gave them too many good pitches to hit." - Jon Rauch. At least he doesn't make excuses.
• "One bad inning kind of blew us away tonight. Duensing was going pretty good, and then all of the sudden, I guess he hit a wall." - Ron Gardenhire
• "Once they started rolling it just seemed to kind of snowball." - Brian Duensing, on the 6th inning.

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Jon Rauch (0.2 innings pitched, 3 hits, 1 walk, 1 home run, 3 inherited runners scored, 3 earned runs, 1 blown save, 1 loss)