Date: 9/14/09

Opponent: Cleveland Indians

Home/Away: Home

Starting Pitcher: Pavano

Final Score: W 6-3

Record: 72-72

Best Moment: The fact that we won what looked like an unwinnable game for us. We were completely stymied by Jeremy Sowers, but luckily we scored some runs of the bullpen in a huge 8th inning. Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel both homered to give us a 6-run inning. I don't really expect momentum these days. I more expect us to roll over and play dead. It was even more remarkable given the bad news the Twins had received before the game about Morneau (and to a much lesser extent Crede). Naturally we have now returned to .500.

Most Questionable Moment: Nothing I can think of for this game, besides my usual complaint of Cabrera batting 2nd.

Worst Moment: Losing Morneau for the season. Although, if I can take a stroll over into bitch territory for a moment (not uncommon for me), we really haven't had Morneau for a while and we've been managing okay. At least with him out for the season we can put someone in the lineup with a chance of getting a hit. He's been so terrible and a total rally killer for the past month and a half, so he was really not contributing much. Presumably we can chalk up the suckage to his back, and ideally he'll be back in top form for next year. 

Quotations of the Day:

• "Stupid Blue Jays. 'Welcome to Toronto: Where the team blows as hard as the wind.'" - My brother, a little bitter over the Blue Jays blowing a 3-run lead in the 9th to the Tigers.
• "You just have to continue playing, and it's not easy; it's tough. The guys all know it. But you know what? We can't do anything about it. He's hurt. We lost one of our leaders and a very good player here, but we still have a job to do, and we still have to catch the Tigers. We'll just have to do it without him. So that's that." - Ron Gardenhire
• "Jeremy pitched well...and we hung in there and got to their bullpen and had some huge heroics with Cuddy's home run and Kubel's home run. That's the way we've got to win ballgames. We hung in to the end." - Carl Pavano
• "It's been bugging me for a while. It's one of those things where you can play through the pain if you feel like you're doing something to help your teammates win ballgames, but when you go out there and you don't feel like you're helping anyone, that's when you take a step back and go, 'All right, maybe I'm doing more harm than good.''' - Justin Morneau
• "It's tough. You're losing a former MVP and one of the stars of your team, so yeah, you're not excited about the news by any means, but it's not the time to mourn yet; you can't say we're done because we lost him. We've got to keep plugging along, and he's going to be here cheering us on as hard as anybody.'' - Michael Cuddyer

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Denard Span (0 for 5, 1 strikeout, 5 left on base)