Date: 8/7/10

Opponent: Cleveland Indians

Home/Away: Away

Starting Pitcher: Pavano

Final Score: W 7-2

Record: 62-49

Recap: That's more like it! A nice dominant win over the Indians, led by the Pavstache on the first anniversary of his acquisition. Excellent. Now let's see if we can go and get the series win tomorrow. I have to say, those uniforms were, um, hideous. Those poor ballplayers back in the beginning of the 20th century. My first thought was to wonder why we chose to wear throwbacks from over 100 years ago when the Indians were wearing uniforms from the 1940s, but a little research led to the discovery that we only had a Negro League baseball team for 4 years (1907-1910), and the St. Paul Gophers weren't even an official team. I guess that kind of limits your choices if you're honoring the Negro Leagues. Oh well. But they were really ridiculous. The bagginess, the collar, the short-brimmed caps, the giant wing-like sleeves. They were like prisoner uniforms with kimono sleeves. I wanted to chain them together and send them to dig a ditch. And boy did the players seem slow trying to run in those things. It was like they were dragging a parachute behind them.

Enough about the uniforms though. Pavano had another solid outing to earn his 14th win of the year, tied for the most wins in the AL. It wasn't one of his best outings. He did walk 4, which is unusual for him, but he kept the team in the game which was the important part. He also really buckled down when he needed to, most noticeably in the 7th inning. The Indians got a lead-off single up the middle followed by a walk. Then the runners were bunted over to 2nd and 3rd. Pavano got the next batter to ground out sharply to 1st, which kept the runner from scoring. Choo was intentionally walked, leaving the bases loaded. And keep in mind the Twins were clinging to a 1-run lead at this point. The 'stache laughed in the face of danger, and struck out Shelley Duncan to end the threat. 

After that point the Twins poured on the offense and ended up scoring 4 runs in the 8th and 9th. Mauer had 4 hits, Cuddyer had 3, and Kubel and Casilla had 2. Kubel and Plouffe each had a solo home run. It was Plouffe's first MLB home run. Kubel was having some adventures in right field. He made a really nice running, over-the-shoulder catch early in the game, but then he fumbled about the rest of the game. He ended up with 2 errors, including one in which he charged the ball to come up throwing only to miss the ball completely. Luckily it didn't cost us any runs.

Best Moment: Guerrier showing off his best batting stance impressions. The by-play between Thome and him was priceless. It pretty much made my day.

Most Questionable Moment: When Cabrera was "caught stealing". That was just a shitty call.

Worst Moment: Kubel's 2 errors.

Quotations of the Day:

• "I looked absolutely ridiculous. The guys told me I looked like I had a diaper on. I really appreciate that from my teammates before I'm going out there to pitch, but that's the kind of relationship we have." - Carl Pavano. Wow, I could hardly love Pavano more than I do after reading that quote. Hilarious.
• "I did get a couple glimpses, and I couldn't look any longer because it was terrible. It was really terrible." - Carl Pavano on his appearance in the throwback unis.

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Delmon Young (0 for 5, 5 left on base). Sorry Skinny Delmon, but even you must suck on occasion.