Date: 6/9/10

Opponent: Kansas City Royals

Home/Away: Home

Starting Pitcher: Pavano

Final Score: W 6-2

Record: 35-24

Recap: I do love it when the Twins win. It keeps me from being too much of a bitch on a night-to-night basis. It was kind of an interesting game tonight. There was really no one person in the lineup who didn't contribute, but no one was standout offensively. Every Twin except one had a hit, and no one had more than 2 hits. No one scored more than 1 run, and no one drove in more than 1 run. It was very much a group effort in terms of offense. As for the one Twin who went hitless, I'll give you a hint: His last name starts with Tol and ends with bert. Oh, and he manages to combine the energy level and annoyance of a Jack Russell terrier on crack in one scrappy package. Yes, Matt Tolbert unsurprisingly went without a hit (although he did walk and score a run, and he drove in a run on a ground out). Thanks to Gardy's obsession with batting a speedy infielder second, we now have a .138 hitter batting in front of Mauer and Morneau. It just blows my mind (and makes me want to blow my brains out).

As I said, the offense was quite evenly spread up and down the lineup, and it was also nicely spaced across the innings. We scored 1 run in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th. Cool. It formed a nice little pattern: 0-1-1-1-0-1-1-1. I like patterns. They're nice and organized (I'm someone who rearranges things at stores if they aren't in the right order, so organization is always a plus for me). Skinny Delmon hit his 7th home run, and he smacked that bitch into the 2nd deck.

On to the pitching. I'm afraid I must apologize to Carl Pavano's mustache. While it is still disgusting and makes him look like an Italian stereotype, it is not "bad luck" as I described it in his last start. He was great today, pitching 8 innings and only giving up 2 runs. He also was a bit better keeping the baserunners in check. This time he only allowed 1 stolen base as opposed to 5. So while I wish he would get rid of that furry creature residing above his upper lip, I will concede that it has no connection to his performance. 

Tomorrow we go for the sweep. It's fortunately not a day game (day games have not tended to go particularly well for us), so perhaps that bodes well. Also, my apologies for the short entry yesterday. I may have overindulged just a bit that night.

Best Moment: Skinny Delmon's homer.

Most Questionable Moment: Matt Tolbert batting second. This will probably continue to be my Most Questionable Moment until he's dropped in the lineup.

Worst Moment: Pavano giving up 2 runs. It was sad. I wanted a shutout.

Quotations of the Day:

• "Pavano was fantastic. He battled through some early stuff, but once the game got going, he got into a nice flow and made a lot of good pitches and had some really good innings out there." - Ron Gardenhire
• "Probably forever...I'm not a big guy on attention, but the attention it has gotten me is kind of funny." - Carl Pavano, on how long he will keep his mustache.
• "It makes him look meaner." - Ron Gardenhire, on the 'stache. I would go with ridiculous myself.

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Matt Tolbert (0 for 4, 1 strikeout, 2 left on base). And he also made a fielding mistake when he threw to 2nd on a fielder's choice when Punto was playing too far from the base to beat the runner there.