On Friday, the Twins scored 8 runs—impressive, but insufficient to beat the Tigers. Saturday they scored 11 but needed only 1 of them. Behind Carl Pavano in his first start for the Twins, the team had a convincing shutout win against Tiger ace Justin Verlander. And on Sunday they scored 7, but needed at least two more as they lost the battle of clutch hitting to the Tigers’ Placido Polanco.
Saturday’s game was a little reward for all occasionally suffering Twins fans. We had big hits (including Joe Mauer’s 20th home run) and pesky hits (including RBI from usual lightweights Delmon Young and Alexi Casilla). We had fielding fun, from a taut double play that kept the fifth inning from exploding to Morneau’s Plastic Man stretch to keep his foot on the bag for an inning-ending out with men on second and third.
And we had a very strong start from Pavano. The Indians cast him off for a player to be named later, and it will take a lot more than this sharp start to convince me that a pitcher with a single great season (2004, with the Marlins, 18-8, 3.00 ERA) and a depressing injury history is going to revitalize our rotation.
But Saturday, Pavano mowed down the Tigers with tidy, video-game style ease. Pavano left plenty of time for the Twins to knock in some runs, but after a two-run homer from Mauer in the first, Verlander put the lid back on quite tightly. It looked like a pitcher’s duel until the fifth.
That’s when the bottom of the order constructed a single run out of a Michael Cuddyer double, a sac from Delmon Young, a head’s up walk from Nick Punto, and a booming sac fly from Alexi Casilla.
No reason for Verlander to quake in his boots over that, but in the sixth Twins came knocking again, scoring two. With the clobbering rhythm finally in hand, the Twins collected three more runs in the seventh, this time off reliever Chris Lambert, and another three in the eighth.
There were several fine bits of baseball in there, including Denard Span going 5 for 5 and Orlando Cabrera keeping his hitting streak going at 18 games. He left the hit on his to-do list all the way until the eighth when he unleashed a triple that scored two. Every player had a hit and all but two had RBI. Great baseball.
I enjoyed the game and soon found myself coasting on that happy little wave of energy that comes when your team’s ahead and seems to belong there. The game had real suspense to the halfway point, so don’t let that 11-0 score lull you. Even when the Twins began rolling up runs, they weren’t annihilating the Tigers, just getting two or three runs per inning. But through all this, I felt the elation of victory.
Now, let’s review. Yesterday, the Twins lost. They’re 5-1/2 games out of first in a very winnable division, but have never closed hard on the lead. They are mired at or below .500. Why am I so delighted by what may be one measly win?
When your team wins in the regular season, you feel, at minimum, that the basic balance of the universe is restored. This is how it’s supposed to be. Root on your team and collect the reward. Winning in the postseason when the stakes are higher is a whole other matter, when your delight is ostensibly justified. But a random game in a random series is an idle, sweet form of happiness, like a break in the weather when the sun and breeze shake every sorrow out of you.
On Sunday, of course, the universe tumbles into trouble again. The Twins staked out an early lead but los tigres answered back; when the Twins crept back to tie it 6-6, Polanco’s RBI single in the eighth put Detroit ahead. Clete Thomas followed with an insurance RBI, and the Tigers needed the coverage. The Twins came up short in the ninth with a single run.
I did not hurtle down to the pit of despair, but it sure wasn’t as pleasant as Saturday’s romp. Both teams traded chances all game long, so I never had to lose hope, but I never got to shake doubt either.
Again, let’s review. The season is in its later stages, and there’s no longer any suspense—we don’t have a great pitching rotation, there are some hitting liabilities in the infield, and the team, while presentable, has shown no propensity for catching on fire. The Twins can’t be counted out, but they used their weekend showdown with the division leader to end up 5 games back.
And with all that, I stay idiotically hopeful. Coasting along on the lift of Saturday’s blow-out, I arrange my weekend memories conveniently. Hey, we scored 26 runs! (Yeah, but ended up 1-2.) Scott Baker pitched pretty well Sunday for the first three innings! (Yeah, but was out in the fifth after allowing 6 earned runs.) We had hits from everybody, and Orlando Cabrera has a 19-game hitting streak! (Yeah, but see how many wins those hits and runs got us.)
Being a fan means oscillating between wins and losses and, often as not, using one perspective to view them both. I could take the dark view, you know, and laugh at that 11-run game as the aberration it is. The only thing a fan can’t do is stay perfectly rational. I mean, it would be pointless, right?
162 Reasons 