Today I was driving back to Boston. Imagine my glee upon realizing the Twins were playing the Yankees and then frantically searching through radio stations as I drove through my scenic detour of the Adirondacks. There was one station on each frequency, and neither of them were broadcasting baseball.
I kept checking back and eventually I caught the game, somewhere on the fringes of some Yankee's radio affiliate. I caught the game in the bottom of the second inning, when the Twins were already up 2-0. Then I stopped for lunch, just for ten minutes to grab something, got into the car and the Twins had scored three more. I heard the parts where New York bumbled and kicked and dropped their way to a two-on, two-out situation when the inning should have been over. But I missed Aaron Hicks' home run.
In the fourth inning I heard the start of Justin Morneau's at-bat, but then I clearly went around some hills and I ate static while the Yanquis botched another one. I got the station back just long enough for Ryan Doumit to step in, at which point I just lost the station entirely. By the time I found a new one, yes, New York screwed the pooch yet again.
By game's end, the Yankees were somehow, miraculously, only charged with two errors. They gave one to Eduardo Nunez and one to Lyle Overbay. Forget about the ball that bounced by Ichiro Suzuki (although it sounds like maybe the ball just hit a divet in the turf), forget the deflection by Luis Cruz, the non-play by Robinson Cano, forget about...hell, everything. Somewhere, baseball hell just froze over and the Yankees only committed two errors.
Zoilo Almonte made a pair of embarrassing base running errors, although those can't be counted. Ryan Doumit made a sliding catch in right field, popped back up, and doubled him off of first. Later in the game, Almonte tried to tag up and score from third but was thrown out by a good throw from Clete Thomas in left field.
Back in Normalsville, Hicks did hit a three-run homer - his eighth of the season - to really put the pressure on CC Sabathia and his struggling defense. Kyle Gibson got himself into a few different jams, which was particularly frustrating when he couldn't throw strikes after being staked to a big lead, but he danced out of danger pretty well and in the end surrendered just two earned runs in five innings of work. He struck out just one, however, and walked four.
Joe Mauer hit his 30th double of the season and Justin Morneau added his 23rd. As a team the Twins were 7-for-19 with runners in scoring position, which is a big improvement over what we usually see. Although, to be fair, a number of those were Yankee errors.
Anyway - that's all for tonight. It's been a long day and it's time to turn in. Be sure to check in over the All-Star break for plenty of Twins talk as we ramp up for the trade deadline!
Studs
Duds
NOBODY BECAUSE DOWN GO THE YANKEES