Those sneaky Mariners...

Do you remember that episode of Star Trek:  The Next Generation where the Enterprise receives a distress call, and they find a ship of bumbling idiots asking for help to "fix our ship, it is broken"?  They're called Pakleds, these aliens, and they want help to repair their engines, in order to "make it go".  Always the good samaritans, the Enterprise sends over chief engineer Geordi LaForge to lend a hand.

Oops!  Turns out those sneaky Pakleds take advantage of good samaritans by kidnapping the help, and forcing them to make weapons and turn over some advanced technology in exchange for the prisoner.  Indeed, they have a habit of taking advantage of the generous by looking useless!  Yes, the Pakleds are more worthless than a box of rocks, but when you succumb to their sneakiness they're disturbingly dangerous because, hell, they've got weapons.  Like a caveman with a grenade.

That's what happened last night.  Those sneaky Mariners managed to get the better of the Twins, again, but this time there were no heroics by Commander Riker and the Enterprise and Minnesota lost to the third worst team in baseball.  Again.

Losers of four straight, the Twins are 2.5 back of the White Sox, who shockingly enough won a game they were supposed to win.  I have a hard time blaming Scott Baker for the defeat, because in spite of allowing 10 hits he did his job.  Six and two-thirds innings and just hree runs is going to count as a good start in my book.  Once again, the Minnesota offense was stymied by a less than imposing hurler, as former Twins farm hand (from December 13, 2004 - March 26, 2005) Ryan Rowland-Smith pinned down the lineup for seven innings, allowing just two runs.

This afternoon the Twins have a chance to avoid complete embarassment, as well as a five-game losing streak.  If we're lucky, timing a win with a Chicago loss would help off-set the disappointments of the last four days.

Here's our roll call for the first two games of the Seattle series.  All hail 33MorneauMVP and his vice president caseintheface, whose campaign based on economic growth with a focus on green energy inspired the populous.

Stars of the Game

#3  Denard Span  (0-for-2, 2 BB, good defense)
#2  Randy Ruiz  (1-for-4, HR, RBI, R)
#1  Scott Baker  (6.2 IP, 10 H, 0 HR, 3 R, 3 K, 3 BB)