The WGOM

Glad to see yesterday that the venting over the loss was short-lived and pretty much everyone was able to see the setback for what it was: one game out of 162, a very well-played game despite the loss, and a bad decision by Gardenhire, one I'm pretty sure he's been beating himself up for worse than any of us could.

I think the consensus that Bass was the wrong guy is right on... the only other semi-controversial decision in the game (Kubel vs. Monroe) seemed perfectly justifiable to me and I'm assuming most would agree.

I won't even try to justify Delmon, he may be a first-pitch swinger but swinging first pitch four times especially at a ball way out of the zone in the first inning against a pitcher who wasn't throwing strikes is just inexcusable.

The one benefit of failure is that intelligent people use it as a means to improve themselves by taking a different approach the next time. If Gardy's and Delmon's failures last night serve to prevent them from going to inferior "hot hand" bullpen arms and stubbornly first-pitch swinging no matter what, then maybe those failures are in the long run more valuable than "success" would have been if they would have turned out well and the Twins won the game. Bad strategy rewarded leads to bad habits...

Of course, this is assuming that Gardenhire and Delmon are intelligent enough to respond to failure this way...

Jeebus, Gomez gets picked off on 3-2 count.

off to a blistering start!

And Casilla walks. Gah!

Holy cr@p! Billy Beane is at it again.

Cubs get Rich Harden (26) and Chad Gaudin (25) for right-handed pitcher Sean Gallagher (22), outfielder Matt Murton (26), infielder Eric Patterson (25) and catcher Josh Donaldson (22, at Single-A).

Harden is a wildly talented, but apparently fragile power pitcher. Gaudin had a hot run last year, but appears to be Kyle Lohse-level at best. I haven't really looked at any of the Cubbie prospects yet, but would have to guess that Gallagher is the prize. Donaldson looks like throw-in junk; Patterson like AAAA infield depth. Murton is potentially useful, but the A's/River Cats OF ranks still seem crowded to me.

JD Drew tries to reach third on a ball hit in front of him. We haven't seen that kind of baserunning since Torii Hunter left.

I thought the reports of Youkilis' defense were exaggerated, but wow. He is making some plays this series.

I want to meet the person who first put bacon on a pile of mashed potatos
yum
----
lets go offense!

Jiminy! Team Bunty McBuntersons.

I know it's just been a few games, but the Harris 3B, Punto SS tandem seems to work well defensively. Punto has the range for SS and Harris has the arm for 3B. I'd think against lefties this would be the way to go.

Between the flaky server and an even flakier Comcast connection last night, I spent about 6 innings failing to connect to the game log. Tonight seems to be much better.

Morneau just keeps hitting... he, Punto, and Mauer all are back in 2006 form. I'd love it if Monroe would regain his 2006 form, especially the Oct 2006...

way to go Harris!
triiiiiiiple

Harris! Two out runs are our specialty!

Harris!

Two out RBI for the (T)win(s)

Yay for secondary power!

A Puntonian hit. Lester's looking pretty hittable tonight.

Better reinforce the shocks and springs on the Punto Bandwagon if he keeps this up...

Poor baserunning is incredibly annoying.

Twins re-take the lead in baserunning blunders, 2-1. It was said last night and tonight seems to be more of the same: this is playoff-type baseball so far... low scoring, good defense, runs at a premium. It would behoove both teams to not needlessly give away outs on the basepaths...

Bert on Fenway: "This is kind of like going to New York"

I'm sure Red Sox fans would love to hear that.

Some of these pitches being called balls by Blackburn are looking like good pitches to me.

ruh roh. Gordo raises the specter of BoSox pursuing Barry Bighead.

Separated at birth: George Clooney and Mike Lowell

Unless you were paying close attention, there was no way to know the Twins scored three runs last inning. Gladden's play-by-play calling is monotone and slightly louder monotone. Yeah yeah, I'm bludgeoning a deceased equine.

Rhu_Ru, where's the trimmed version?

Hmmm... I didn't get much from that interview except "When you live on the street, socks are like gold."

btw, the nephew of Friend of bS, RJ Swindle, got his debut in yesterday. 3 innings of relief for the Phils; he gave up a bomb to his first batter, David Wright, then a couple more hits and one more run before settling down.

Paraphrasing my buddy Stick's summary: if Charlie M wanted him as a LOOGY, why did he debut against three consecutive right-handed hitters (Wright, Beltran, Easley)?

but whatever. exciting trial by fire. He cashed in a couple K's with his 53-MPH eephus-like slow curve.

Gomez struck out on a low slider out of the zone... I don't recall that happening before... anyone else?

Hola folks.

"These Twins will drive you nuts with the bunts."

Literally, in the case of Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia.

Yes, I defied Sabathia's punctuation embargo.

holy cow! my audio is in front of gameday!

Just in time, since I gotta go pee.

Bert justifies Varitek's inclusion on the All-Star team. All righty, then.

Looks like I flipped on the TV at just the right time. For some reason, the game wasn't recording and when I tuned to 641 the top of the 4th was starting.

Nice to see those 2 out ribeyes again.

Twayn's wife: "Red Sox have a runner on with no outs."
Twayn (from kitchen): "Who's batting?"
Twayn's wife: "Um... um... the bouncy guy!"

Nice sign by the Twins fan at Fenway saying "You're Welcome, Boston" for Ortiz, Moss, and KG. I'd never thought of it that way, but Boston has 3 HOFers courtesy of Minny letting them go...

WOW what a play by Blackburn! I had flashbacks to Santana there!

Wow. I hope Cuddy's a slow healer.

Defense on display!

D-span has provided some excellent viewing (or listening).

Holy crap Span has been awesome in RF...

Sending him back to AAA could result in riots in Mpls....

The Red Sox have a better offense by the Twins, but man their bottom 3 is bad -- and really struggling right now. I'd gladly take Harris, Punto, and Span over Crisp, Varitek/Cash, and Lugo...

I didn't mention this yesterday- I never noticed how baby faced Light Rail is. The whole flight home I was shaking my head thinking about how he looked like a 12 year old.

Blackburn at 63 pitches at 5.2 innings - that's efficient.

That was just an excellent pitch sequence to Manny there. Mighty pretty pitching.

Blackburn singing in the dead of night...

Brendan "Extra Base" Harris

What are these 'other benefits' you speak of?

I'm a little confused, Gameday just showed "Foul (runner going)" with Harris on third. Was this possibly a mistake on Gameday's part?

Hoo-hah, M. Span.

Gomez not doing much at the plate this evening - besides sucking.

Has Bass started warming up yet???

Yukon Cornelius strokes a triple off the monster. Crax.

Ok, now it's getting serious. Get Breslow and Shaggy up.

Cheese/Sampler warming in the pen.

Itchy hook finger.

Another good performance from our starter tonight. And the pitching change means it's time for ice cream.

Hmmm, I think I would have been inclined to let Blackburn try to close this one out - he has been very effective and a pretty low pitch count. With two outs and one on first, I'd trust him to get it done.

The big sweat is in there. g'git dennys.

That was too easy.

Heck yes Denny.

the Padre has been missing in action of late. Josh Rabe announced his retirement last week. Classy comments to Mandalero.

Wow, Boston really burned thru the players to make one PH move. Cash > Casey > Bailey > Varitek. All that for a strikeout looking.

How many pinch hitter -> new pitcher -> pinch hitter -> reliever iterations can managers go through before one at bat? As many as they want?

M & M. Can the third M do something here so I can go home?

Dude! You got a Delmon!

Attaboy Delmon. See how much better it is when you work a count instead of hacking every single time?

Alright Twins! Young delivers another hit.

Can anyone tell me what "pfx" means on gameday pitch stat?

Tremendous clutchiness tonight. But not on nat'l tv, naturally.

Ok, that should do it. I GONE.

Hey boss- I was just shut out of this SBG site for 3 innings (internal server error) Was I sent to the box?

The Big Cheese relieving Dennys Sampler. But really, couldn't we just insert Nathan here? The requisite baserunner is already on.

GULP

Aw nuts.

OH. EM. GEE.

Someone hit the Neshek button

Give 'em the hook.

Blackburn should have just gone for the complete game

Jesus christ.

D'oh.

Normally I'm a fan of stinky cheese.

Why was Guerrier still in there to face the lefty Moss? Why has Breslow not been in a game for since June 30th?

So this is what it feels like to have the 3 run lead taken from you.

SBG your server pooped big-time just when I needed to vent.

Oh well....tough loss if they can't score in the 9th. Very tough loss. Even worse than last night's.

Nick F'n Punto???!?!?!

Wow, Punto with the phenomenal at bat.

Why is Span batting and not Kubel? If he sacrifices I am going to flip. I don't trust Gomez to get the run home.

okay, anyone else getting the server error?

Fly ball. Just a fly ball. fly ball.

yes...many server errors

Man. The guy throws 20 straight fastballs, all at the exact same speed, and it still doesn't matter.

Damn. Damn damn damn. And Livan is pitching tomorrow? Double damn.

This was a very winnable series.

Nothing like lising with your best pitcher sitting in the bullpen.

Holy cr@p, not the 8^th inning thing again!! Good to see Nathan will be fresh for the All-Star Game, at least.

Now, before I was rudely interrupted by repeated server errors, I was saying that THIS WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TO HAVE NATHAN PITCH TWO FRIGGING INNINGS!

Okay, I feel much better now. Well, not really, but it was somewhat cathartic.

White Sox blew a two-run lead with two outs in the 11th inning. Now in bottom of 12.