Twinsgirl197's Imaginary Off Season Game 3: Tug of War With Tigers

                Hey everyone, I’m back to my off season games! Sorry I missed last weekend, I was really busy between friends, school work, working out before tryouts, and a few other things that came up. So we’ll pretend last weekend was an off day, and was totally planned!

                Our Twins just barely pulled through today in a back and forth game against the Tigers at Target Field.  The pitching matchup was Scott Baker against Brad Penny. We got to see some of our new players in action today and despite Baker giving up several leads and the bullpen needing to handle most of the game, we managed to look at least somewhat decent with the bats. So hey, something good came out of this afternoon.

Lineups: (PS I tried to fit in both Carroll and Doumit, but to be honest, I don’t know where they’d usually fit in the batting order, so this is my guess)

Tigers                                                                                      Twins

Dirks, CF                                                                                  Span, CF
Boesch, LF                                                                               Revere, LF
Ordonez, RF                                                                             Mauer, C
Cabrera, 1B                                                                              Morneau, 1B
Martinez, DH                                                                             Doumit, DH
Peralta, SS                                                                               Valencia, 3B
Guillen, 2B                                                                                Carroll, SS
Avila, C                                                                                       Plouffe, RF
Kelly, 3B                                                                                    Casilla, 2B

            I’m kind of going back on my word here, I’m making this Sunday night after I finished my homework, and I’m not really wanting to make a box score right now, so you guys are stuck just reading for now. Maybe next week… Maybe.

~1st~

            Baker took the mound and proceeded to give up a double, then another, then another. Twins fans across the stadium and even in most of the state, face palm’d simultaneously. He fell quickly behind 3-1 to Cabrera, but managed to get him to line out to a diving Carroll who proceeded to tag Ordonez for a double play. Jamey received a very warm, well deserved Minnesotan welcome. It was just a beautiful play, one that Twins fans have been wanting from their short stops for a *long* time. Baker seemed to appreciate it too, because he proceeded to strike out Martinez on 3 pitches.

            Already behind 2-0, Denard Span stepped up to the plate and managed to work a 9 pitch walk. Revere took the next pitch as a ball, and then hit a ball right into the RF corner, and he ran for a while. Denard scored, but Ben, only about 10 steps behind him, was thrown out trying to make it home. Gotta love third base coaches who try to make what would only be a double for most guys into a homer because the guy is fast, right? (Trust me, it was a triple the whole way for Ben, it was pretty ridiculous that he was waved around). Joe Mauer struck out on 5 pitches on a very questionable called third strike, and then Justin hit a seeing eye single between Cabrera and Guillen. Doumit was welcomed as well as he hit a double, scoring Justin from first. Danny was ahead 2-0, but managed to strike out on a pitch right down the middle… Wasn’t pretty.

~2nd~

            The score tied 2-2, Peralta singled, Guillen walked, and Avila singled with Peralta scoring from second. With runners on first and third, Kelly struck out. Baker threw a wild pitch in Dirks’s at bat, advancing both runners. Dirks ended up walking, making it runners on first and second, and the score at 3-2. Boesch grounded to Carroll who turned another double play, this time the more traditional 6-4-3 to end the inning.

            Carroll led off with his first at bat as a Twin resulting as a solid single. Unfortunately, Plouffe didn’t think Jamey wanted to stay on the bases for very long, so he hit into a double play. Casilla then grounded out to Kelly.

~3rd~

            Ordonez led off the third with a first pitch home run, making the score 4-2 in favor of the Tigers. But hey, that at least seemed to have woke up Baker at least for the rest of the inning, because the next three all grounded out harmlessly to Danny, Jamey and Justin respectively.

            Denard began the Twins half of the 3rd with a double, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Ben then hit a single to shallow right that looked like it was going to be caught by Ordonez. Denard, seeing that it was dropped, went in to score, and because of an off target throw to the plate, ben was able to make it to 2nd. Joe hit a beautiful double scoring Ben, tying the game up at four a piece. And then Justin decided he was going to stop that tie score. The ball just completely exploded off of his bat. It was a no doubter, and almost reminiscent of Thome’s flag pole shot. Doumit ended up grounding out to Peralta, and Danny was a copycat and did the same. Plouffe quickly swung at a pitch way too far inside, breaking his bat and grounding out weakly.

~4th~

            Guillen walked to lead off the fourth, quickly followed by Avilla. Gardy seemed nervous, so he got Swarzak warming up in the pen. Kelly hit a double that scored Guillen, but Avilla was held at third because of his terrible lead. The lead Justin had gotten for us was about to be blown when Dirks came up and hit a double as well. With a runner at second and the score 7-6, Swarzak got put into the game. Anthony struck out Boesch and Ordonez, and got Cabrera to ground to Danny, who made an error on his throw, but didn’t end up costing a run because Martinez gave him another chance that he was able to get the out for.

            Casilla led off with a single, and Denard followed with another. Ben almost grounded into a double play, but since we had speedsters on the bases, he ended up only with a fielder’s choice with Denard heading to the dugout. Joe flew out to left, allowing Lexi to make it 7-7, and Ben made it to second. Justin scorched the ball, but it was headed straight to Cabrera’s glove, who caught it on the line.

~5th~

            Peralta was the first batter of the fifth, and also the first to strike out. Guillen hit a ball right between a diving Danny and the line for a double, but it didn’t end up mattering because Avila and Kelly each struck out.

            Doumit grounded out to Kelly to begin the Twins half of the 5th, but it was still a successful inning. Valencia took a fastball the other way and ended up on third after a misplay in the corner by Ordonez. Carroll drove him in with a beautifully placed roller up the line that was misplayed by Penny allowing him to reach and drive Danny in. Plouffe hit a double, allowing Carroll to score. Casilla drew a walk, sending Span up with runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out, and the score at 9-7 Twins. He hit a double, making it 11-7, which would prove to be the final score of the game. Ben and Joe struck out and grounded out to second respectively.

~6th-8th~

            Only 5 hits were allowed in these innings, 1 to the Twins and 4 to the Tigers, but because it was so uneventful, I’m not going to recap these innings.

~9th~

            Perkins came in to finish up the game and did so cleanly, striking out Martinez, getting Peralta to ground out, and getting Guillen to fly out to Ben in left field.

            Our Twins are undefeated! We’re in the early lead for the central, which is stacked like so:

1.     Twins                                        3-0

2.     Tigers                                        2-1

3.     Indians                                      2-1

4.     White Sox                                  1-2

5.     Royals                                        0-3

And your studs and duds for the game:

 Studs: Swarzak, Morneau

Duds: Baker

                I hope you guys enjoy these, they are a lot of fun to write and I think I’m starting to figure out what works and doesn’t work for writing these. Suggestions and constructive criticism, as always, are welcome :) have a nice week, everyone!

Also I had a mega freudian (yeah, I don't know how to spell that one either...) slip and for some reason kept putting White Sox instead of Tigers... I don't know why... So feel free to yell at me and tell me to fix it. It's been a long week....