Date: 10/1/09

Opponent: Detroit Tigers

Home/Away: Away

Starting Pitcher: Baker

Final Score: W 8-3

Record: 83-76

Best Moment: The Twins stave off elimination for at least one more day and in the process avoid having to see the Tigers celebrate in front of them. I won't detail the offense (based on the score, it was clearly there), or the pitching (Baker struggled painfully through 5 innings, but still didn't give up any earned runs). Let us instead look at the Great Twins-Tigers Uproar of '09, which culminated in Delmon Young nearly charging his own dugout. What a bizarre game this was.

I guess you could say it started with Span getting hit by a pitch. Except I'm not sure anyone on our side was all that upset about it. But then a little bit later Baker hit Marcus Thames in the shoulder. Was it retaliation? Maybe, or maybe he was just pitching inside. Regardless, Thames was not very happy, and he responded by taking out Cabrera on a hard slide that cost us a double play. Cabrera thought it was a dirty slide and was angry at the umpire for not ruling a double play on it. Thames and Cabrera also yelled at each other quite a bit. Things seemed to settle down, yet Baker pitched up and in to Thames again and was rewarded with the evil eye. Nothing further occurred for a while, and it seemed as if everything was over until Jose Mijares was brought in to pitch. With clear deliberation, Mijares attempted to drill Adam Everett and ended up throwing behind him. I'm not sure if Mijares was angry because of Thames's take-out slide or because Laird stole a base behind him or because Adam Everett stole his lunch sometime last September, but regardless of the cause, the benches were warned. Jim Leyland was infuriated by the warning and was ejected. Then the top of the next inning, Delmon Young was plunked on the knee on the first pitch, and after writhing in pain for a short while he leapt up, pointed his finger at Mijares and made threatening movements toward his own dugout. The benches cleared as players wandered about in general confusion. Everything seemed to calm down once the Tigers realized Young wasn't attempting to charge their pitcher, but rather our pitcher. Bonderman and Gerald Laird were ejected, and eventually order was restored. It was quite exciting though, and it was probably as close to a bench-clearing brawl as I'm going to get this year. I'll take it. 

And as for Mauer being accused of stealing signs, who cares? It's a part of the game (a great part of the game in my opinion). If the Tigers were stupid enough to have such obvious signs that Mauer could catch on to them, then it's their own damn fault.

Most Questionable Moment: Probably when the umpire ruled a double play that wasn't a double play. My Tiger Tiger Ramon Santiago was doubled up after tagging up on a foul ball catch. The ump ruled he left early. Problem is he didn't. And then there was Bert being Bert. He misspoke and claimed that the Twins had 4 players with 90 home runs this season, as opposed to 90 RBIs. I think we would have already won the division if we had hit that many homers.

Worst Moment: The defense. Good lord. All 3 runs scored against us were unearned, thanks to 4 errors. Delmon Young misplayed a single into a double which led to the first run of the game. Then Harris booted a grounder and dropped a pop-up (although I think Matt Guerrier really should have just caught it; it's beyond stupid that pitchers aren't supposed to do that), and finally Tolbert had a ball go straight through his legs on a routine ground ball that eventually led to 2 unearned runs. There's something hilarious about: A) someone being taken out of the game for a defensive replacement in a 7-run game, and B) said defensive replacement almost immediately making a run-costing error. Or at least it's hilarious when it doesn't cost you the game.

Quotations of the Day:

• "He has all winter to rest." - Bert Blyleven, unconcerned about Baker's rising pitch count.
• "Obviously we don't control our destiny anymore. Anything can happen, but first and foremost if we don't win, we know what will happen. So we have to go out and win." - Michael Cuddyer
• He's got to understand to learn how to play the game. This is not the Minor Leagues up here." - Delmon Young, still angry at Mijares.
• "I have no clue why [Mijares] let the ball fly like that. It's all been taken care of." - Ron Gardenhire
• "We're in a little bunker. We have to go out the door, up the stairs, past the mounds, take a right and then you're in deep center field. By then, I had my arms up in the air. I couldn't breathe." - Jesse Crain, trying to justify not making it to home plate when the benches and bullpens cleared. Ah, so that's why the only bullpen pitcher I saw jog out there was Nathan. The rest of you fat asses were too lazy.

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Brendan Harris (0 for 4, 1 strikeout, 2 left on base, 2 errors)