Date: 7/16/10

Opponent: Chicago White Sox

Home/Away: Home

Starting Pitcher: Liriano

Final Score: W 7-4

Record: 47-43

Recap: Hey, look! A good outing by a starter! It's always so welcome these days. I'm glad Liriano rebounded from his last start, because we sure needed to win that one. I was at the game, and I probably would have freaked out if we had lost. It certainly looked close for a while there. It concerns me that I actual look forward to seeing Jesse Crain enter a game. Wow.

Nothing much happened until the 4th inning, at which point I proclaimed that we needed to score in that very inning. Then the Twins offense finally got going (and the White Sox defense fell apart). Kubel singled, and after a Cuddyer strikeout, Thome walked. Up came Skinny Delmon, who hit a ground ball that was a possible double play ball. But the 3rd baseman booted it, and everyone reached safely to load the bases. J.J. Hardy singled to score the first run of the game. Punto struck out, and Denard Span had a chance with 2 outs. He hit a dribbler to 2nd, which Beckham couldn't quite get a handle on. He sort of batted it toward 1st base, and Span reached on an infield single. The ball got past Konerko, and both Thome and Young scored. Hudson singled as well to score the fourth run of the inning.

Liriano gave up a couple of runs, one in the 5th and one in the 8th. But the Twins again took advantage of some bad defense to score some runs in the bottom of the 8th. I again announced that we were going to score in the inning (yes, you can thank me for all of our offense; you're welcome). Hardy singled, and Punto tried to bunt him over to 2nd. He ended up reaching when the pitcher threw past his head. Punto went to 2nd and Hardy went to 3rd on the throw. After a Span groundout, Hudson walked to load the bases. Then Mauer hit a single up the middle to score 2, while later in the inning Cuddyer singled to score a third run. Those insurance runs turned out to be a very good thing.

You'd think Jon Rauch would be able to hold a 5-run lead, but he sure did his damnedest to ruin a good game. We had left our seats to watch the end of the game from main concourse, so we were standing their trying to desperately see over all the tall people blocking our view. I was at the game with my sister and a friend, and the tallest of us is 5'5" on a good day. I don't know if the All-Star Break gave Rauch a terrifying fear of the strike zone or what, but he only threw 9 strikes in his 24 pitches. Yikes. He gave up a single, a walk, and then following a strikeout another single to make it a 7 to 3 game. I was getting a little antsy at this point, but I wasn't really concerned until he loaded the bases with a walk and then walked in another run. Now the go-ahead run was at the plate, and Rauch was showing no signs of improvement. Gardy really had no choice but to go to another reliever, and Crain was the best choice. The first pitch he threw was hit well to center, but Span sprinted in to catch it. And then finally he struck out the next batter to get his 3rd Major League save. 4 pitches, 4 strikes, 2 outs. So thank you Crain for saving Rauch's ass. 

Anyway, it was a good game, with some great offensive performances and a great starting performance. The only real cloud over the proceedings was Rauch. I had a lot of fun, too, despite the unbelievably obnoxious White Sox fans in our section. I swear 80 percent of the section were Sox fans. There were several birds swooping around the stadium, enjoying the cornucopia of bugs congregating by the lights. At least 2 of them look rather falcon-like, so I'm convinced Kirby now has a girlfriend. Up in the 3rd deck I had the perfect view of one of them pooping on spectators below. I can only pray that it landed on a South Sider. Perhaps now we can get back on track. I still feel like a rotation change is in order. I'm kind of irritated that we haven't done anything yet. I like all of our starters, but the fact that I like them doesn't change the fact that they aren't getting the job done.

Best Moment: The 4 runs in the 4th inning.

Most Questionable Moment: The molester-looking man with the dark suit smoking a cigar and handing out what appeared to be leaflets offering some, ahem, female companionship. I felt like I was in Vegas again.

Worst Moment: Jon Rauch. What the fuck?

Quotations of the Day:

• "Liriano was just super and exactly what we needed, a good dose of medicine, and he gave it to us by pitching like he did." - Ron Gardenhire
• "Let's call it post-All-Star break syndrome, and that's what he had tonight. He just had the syndrome, and he just couldn't throw it over, and he said he couldn't figure it out on the mound. So, we'll give him a rain check and let him come back out there and get the save." - Ron Gardenhire, on Jon Rauch.
• "We need to get going, we need to get on the right track. We've kind of floundered here for about a month of just not playing our baseball and not doing really anything. We need to get going. The crowds are coming out and they're supporting this baseball team, so we need to play a better brand of baseball for them. Hopefully tonight that's a good start." - Ron Gardenhire

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Jon Rauch (0.1 innings pitched, 2 hits, 3 walks, 2 earned runs)