Date: 9/25/09

Opponent: Kansas City Royals

Home/Away: Away

Starting Pitcher: Pavano

Final Score: W 9-4

Record: 80-73

Best Moment: Punto scores on a wild pitch...from 2nd base. Hilarious. The pitch hit the grass, then bounced off the umpire before finally bouncing back to the screen and coming to a rest on the ledge there. The best part? Cabrera "helpfully" pointing the catcher in the wrong direction. Dude, he's not on your team. I suppose in the heat of the moment you get so panicked that you're willing to accept direction from anyone. The Royals really self-destructed in this game thanks to an error which set up a 4-run inning and major control issues. Besides the wild pitch, 3 other runs scored without the batter making contact with the ball; those would be the 3 consecutive bases-loaded walks the pitching staff kindly issued. There were 2 other walks and the aforementioned error in the same inning. Major ouch. Delmon Young had a big night with a triple and home run, while Cuddyer hit his 30th homer of the year. Pavano wasn't fantastic, largely due to his inability to prevent Billy Butler from hitting home runs off of him, but he did well enough to win. And that's all that matters. A Detroit loss allowed the Twins to pull within 2 games.

Most Questionable Moment: Let's just stop pitching to Billy Butler, shall we? That potato-headed bastard kills us.

Worst Moment: Billy Butler's second home run, which pulled the Royals to within 2. I was actually nervous for a minute. And then it was like, "Oh, yeah, we're playing the Royals." Of course, the Royals are notorious spoilers in September; I suppose I shouldn't dismiss them so summarily.

Quotations of the Day:

• "We figure if we just keep winning, then [the Tigers] can't go any farther away from us until we get there to play in Detroit. We just have to win our games. That's all we are focusing on right now." - Ron Gardenhire
• "It's hard not to glance at the scoreboard. If anybody says they are not scoreboard watching, they are straight up lying." - Nick Punto
• "You know the damage Cuddyer can do. Morneau went down and true professionals have this innate ability to step up when they need to. Cuddyer is enjoying this. Last year he had a tough injury-ridden year. He watched the team battle without him and I think it truly bothered him he couldn't be part of that. Now he's part of something special. He's been consistent all year and these last two weeks he's stepped it up unbelievably. The hits he's gotten are big hits, big home runs, big RBI home runs. I can't say enough." - Carl Pavano

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Jose Morales (0 for 4, 1 strikeout, 4 left on base). Sorry, it was bound to happen sometime.