Hey, I didn't realize that the Tigers didn't always score in the first inning! Nice comeback by Santana after the leadoff double.

And then, the Tigers get around a leadoff little league triple.

Santana seems more or less on track again today, eh?

Nice footwork by Santana at the end of the 2nd to avoid stepping on the foul line. These things matter.

Good point, Ubelmann. Those sabermetric stats don't stand up to doing all the little things, playing the right way.

Gentlemen:

It is HOT, HOT, HOT in the Twin Cities again today.

Way to make Bonderman work that inning, boys.

Good ol' One-Pitch White. [insert rolled eyes smiley here]

Rondell grabbing his leg? Perhaps Torii will be reappearing tomorrow.

Way to make Bonderman work that inning, boys.

I will say that that time, Rondell did actually hit the ball hard and Inge made a nice play. I can't fault Rondell too much for that swing.

Reusse makes me laugh.

Michael Cuddyer has been always outstanding in right field .... Team leader? The nominee here is Mike Redmond, exquisite backup catcher, low-key agitator, confidence booster.

Another run where the Twins can't seem to catch a break. Start missin' some more bats here, Johan.

The Tigers refuse to be doubled up. Frustrating.

Have I mentioned my desire for a double play on a ground ball??

Arg. Santana struggling to locate his change.

How about this on espn.com's front page?

Abreu Appears Headed To Bronx
The Yankees and Phillies reached a tentative deal Sunday that will send Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle to New York for three minor-league players. The Yankees will also pick up Abreu's contract in full.

The Twins have to get past the Yanks, too, if they're going to get this Wild Card thingie, and if that move goes through, that'll make the Yanks a better team.

Johan sure didn't give in to Ordonez there. Even with his troubles throwing strikes with the change-up, he threw it on a 3-2 count with the runners going.

Yep. That's a big move for the Yanquis. Lidle is a lot better than Sidney Ponson (duh). Abreu is a lot better in the field (and plate?) than Bernie Williams (again, duh).

This is painful to watch.

SO painful.

That's about 3 innings worth of pitches for Santana there. Looks like we'll be seeing plenty of the bullpen today.

At the very least, the boys need to stretch this half-inning out. Give Johan a breather.

Redmond, showing leadership on the first pitch.

Wow. That's patience. Two whole pitches.

Stuff like this from LEN3's column today irritates me:

Washington wanted righthanded prospect Matt Garza as part of any deal for Soriano, and the Twins decided that Garza, or other prospects, weren't worth giving up for a two-month rental.

Not that I'm really hot on Soriano, but insisting on Garza is like saying "we're not willing to make a deal with you." Pretty much an a**hole move, if you ask me.

Bonderman really thought he had JB on that first 3-2 pitch...and then he goes to the same spot but a little farther outside to get the K. Better control this inning, Johan, please?

By Jason Williams math, Bartlett has seen "almost a third" of Bonderman's pitches so far this game.

You were saying, Ubelmann?

If it took Santana 30 pitches to get out of the last inning, how many is it going to take to get out of this inning? 50?

That was a really good 2-2 pitch.

Not that I’m really hot on Soriano, but insisting on Garza is like saying “we’re not willing to make a deal with you.” Pretty much an a**hole move, if you ask me.

You make demands like that, you end up offering Soriano arbitration in the winter.

I swear that's the only swing I've seen on a pitch out of the strike zone that whole turn through the rotation. These Tigers definitely get their money's worth at the plate.

Johan has had (for him) a very tough July. He has worked extremely hard this today.

I am really impressed with this Tigers team.

Oh Punto, we needed that. Good work.

A hit or two would be nice this inning.

You make demands like that, you end up offering Soriano arbitration in the winter.

The thing is, you can't make demands like that to every team. Not every team even has a Garza. On the trade market, not everyone is playing with the same currency. So just because they're insisting on Garza from the Twins doesn't mean they'd be insisting on the same type of player from, say, the White Sox.

A hit or two would be nice this inning.

A run or two would be nice this inning.

Bonderman might just be too good for this lineup today. I'm having difficulty seeing anything other than a Morneau HR getting us runs today.

McClelland's leisurely strike call irritates me.

A run or two would be nice this inning.

A run or two would be nice this game.

Bert explaining to us how McClelland doesn't call the strike zone properly. To me, this is a bigger issue than would-be HR's bouncing off speakers. When you know exactly how the umpire is going to call the strike zone improperly, then it seems like someone in charge of that umpire ought to tell that umpire to shape up.

Not that this has been a difference in the game today, but it's a pet peeve of mine. And apparently games like this make ubelmann irritable.

That's gotta be it for Johan. Not his day. It reminds me a lot of the outing he had in Seattle. Not able to throw strikes, thus not getting many strikeouts, but making most of his mistakes out of the strike zone and keeping the team in the game. Of course, as noted earlier, with Bonderman on the mound, maybe allowing two runs won't keep us in the game...

I dunno. Who is warming up? I might go one more inning with Johan.

Bonderman is having a very Santanaesque game today. That's a really nice compliment.

Two errors in the first would have been enough to shake a team up and screw with their game a bit, but have to give Detroit credit for keeping their heads on.

Meanwhile, more Tigers holding down bases. And why doesn't someone tell Brent Cleveland that he's spelling his name wrong?

I just don't see the point of going with Johan here. He hasn't been very effective, we need him to be effective in his next start, so throwing him out there to potentially go a fair bit over 100 pitches seems like a waste to me, especially since it looks like he'll be getting very, very few extra days down the stretch.

Come on, Gardy, it wasn't a good idea to send Santana out there in the first place. Keeping him out there over 100 pitches with runners on base...you are paying attention, right?

Clevelen must think this is a pretty easy game. 3 PA in his ML career and he has a hit and a walk so far. Against Santana.

Stupid baseball by the Tigers there. Haven't seen that in a while. And the Tigers still score. That one goes on Gardy's ERA.

Just for the record there, Santana got zero outs that inning, the Tigers ran themselves into an out, but got three hits and scored a run. What a terrible, terrible decision to put Santana on the mound again.

Santana didn't have it at all. He battled, but the Tigers were on him all day.

Three runs in 5 1/3 isn't great, but 0 in the home town column makes the game unwinnable.

Bonderman's been great.

Well, I suppose Gardy was thinking about the lack of off-days coming up, the fact that Santana was just under 100 pitches going into the inning, and that it was the bottom of the order. Hoping to get lucky with a quick inning and, if not, he'd pull him. Which is what he did.

I'm reminded of something else Will Carroll said in his chat on Friday:

Earl Weaver said "the hitters will tell me when to pull a guy." I did a big project a couple years ago, seeing if a velocity drop predicted injury. It did, but I also found out that you could eyeball it just as easily. A group of little league moms were almost as good as a group of major league pitching coaches at spotting when to take a guy out.

The Twins DO know that it is possible to get two outs on a ground ball with a runner at first???

Yep. Santana was done after five innings and 95 pitches. He was really stressed. Should not have gotten back on the mound for the sixth. Hell, we are carrying 12 pitchers.

Hoping to get lucky with a quick inning and, if not, he’d pull him.

If we were just hoping to be lucky, we could throw Eyre out there and hope for the best. To me, the lack of off days coming up is more of a reason to keep Santana rested than worry about the bullpen, especially with Guerrier on track to come off of the DL soon.

Hell, we are carrying 12 pitchers.

Groundskeeper Willie says "Hey guys! I've only thrown one inning in the last 22 days. I fixed the turf problem last night, when do I get to pitch?"

That's not exactly conventional thinking there, is it, Ubelmann?

4 bullpen arms got used yesterday. The back end of the rotation pitches the next two nights against a hard-hitting Texas team. You are going to need those middle-relief guys (not Benchwarmer Willie) this week. If you can save one more inning from your bullpen today without over-extending Santana, you do it.

Josh Rabe is having a tough time throwing the ball back to the infield.

Sorry. "Groundskeeper Willie".

He's a victory cigar for the other team. A 3-0 game after 6 is not a totally lost cause.

It's tough to throw on this Metrodome turf. Nasty Minnesota sun out today. Pretty rough crosswind to deal with. *tries to think of other excuses I've used in softball games*

Nick K. Punto.

Hope we're not seeing the new streak Punto is starting now...

Tiny Super Hero is wearing a Tiny Sombrero today.

And yet again, not a double play. C R A P

That’s not exactly conventional thinking there, is it, Ubelmann?

Screw conventional thinking, I want good thinking.

A 3-0 game after 6 is not a totally lost cause.

A 2-0 game is even less of a lost cause. Though it may have sounded like it, I'm not necessarily saying he needed to use Eyre there. But even then, I'm not so sure Eyre couldn't have done just as well as Santana in the 6th. Santana had 2 strikeouts and 4 walks in 5 innings pitched. On the season, Eyre has 3.5 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9. More or less, Santana was pitching like Eyre through 5 innings. There just wasn't a very good chance that Santana was going to turn it around in the 5th inning, and the Twins either needed to go to their best arms to keep it a 2-run game, or they needed to go with Eyre to protect the bullpen (and Santana) for the future. Putting Santana out there really doesn't accomplish much.

And whatever the conventional wisdom is, I don't think it's very wise if it's telling you to put a pitcher who is clearly struggling that day into a 2-0 ballgame.

It's gonna be difficult for Morneau to hit a 3-run HR here. I'm not really digging our chances.

Alright, that helps out some. Let's keep it going.

Kubel put some wicked spin on that. Yeah, that was it, Kubel did that on purpose.

Now playing first base for the Tigers, Bill Buckner. Sorry, couldn't help it.

What the hell. It's an explosion! Redmond "kicked up some chalk" there.

Who put the 2003 Tigers defense in there? And how much do we tip them?

See, first pitch swinging works.

(Yeah, I can't believe Redmond doesn't have a walk yet. What are his average pitches/plate appearance and how does he rank?)

I dunno. Santana is going to have 4 days of rest before his next start. Crain, Reyes and Neshek now have both pitched on consecutive days. Odds are pretty good that one or two of them will get a call tomorrow, with Silva (presumably) starting.

I wasn't ready to give up on this game after 5 either. But Santana's "struggling" was still better than most starters' average performance. I still say that trying to get through the 6th without using the bullpen was a reasonable gamble by Gardenhire.

but then, I'm not actually watching the game. I might think differently if I were seeing the telecast.

God. How come Redmond didn't score there?

Ladies and gentlemen, we appear to be have a ballgame here...

particularly now that the Twins have scored 2 in the 8th.