FanPost

On-Field Report: Twins 4 vs A's 0

TF Sec 114

My place behind home plate

I was at today's game in Sec 114. It was an impulse buy. I had the day off, had a hankering to go to the game and saw this ticket ripe for the picking of $30 on StubHub. ($38.50 after Ticketmaster/StubHub fees). Interestingly enough, the lady who sold the ticket was in the seat next to me. Apparently she does this from time to time when her husband can't attend.

We spoke most of the game about baseball, a little about politics and a few other minor stories. It's the first time I've really engaged with a complete stranger at a Twins game who wasn't criticizing every play without knowing what they were talking about or who simply asked a lot of questions and needed some guidance on who was who or what just happened.

Before the game, Nunez was presented his Padres team color All-Star jersey. Unfortunately, I can't find the link and they posted it on Facebook, but I don't know how to link it from here. At any rate, the sh*t brown and p*ss yellow really look terrible.

Anyway, it was too bad this game wasn't televised because it was one of the best Twins games I've seen in a long time. Ervin Santana was damn near lights out from jump. He had great movement, he was hitting his spots and the A's batters were just lost. Most of the balls that were hit were incredibly weak grounders or pop flies.

Mauer had a rare fielding error on a foul ball that got lost in the noonday sun. Thankfully, it didn't hurt the Twins nor Santana as he was still able to get the out and keep his pitch count low. He also looked good at the plate hitting a couple of singles and a double. The double was made possible due to Kepler having been walked and Joe bluffing a bunt on the first pitch. The infield was still drawn just slightly in a couple pitches later when Joe lined it over the shortstop's glove by an inch. Without that bluff, the SS likely would have been in perfect position to catch a line-out.

I criticize Danny Santana for being on the team (as I call him Alexii Casilla pt 2). But he's clearly better than Casilla. He hit 3/4 of the cycle today, in order no less. He was also strong at SS. I'm not one to crown anyone for having a good game, but props where they are due and he earned his props today.

While Kepler didn't get any hits today, he did work a RBI walk with the bases loaded and has been looking more and more competent at the plate lately. He's fun to watch and definitely has the look of a young Justin Morneau (as someone pointed out on FB yesterday). I hope they're right.

This game probably should have been more of a blowout. The Twins seemed to have Gray's number at times, then just got lost when the runners were on base. But they drove up the pitch count quickly and got the bullpen in early, which allowed the Twins to get all the insurance runs they wanted. Thankfully, Santana didn't need a single one and pitched a gem and faced only one batter over the minimum.

I do think he might have had a shot at a perfect game if Buxton had been in CF and Rosario had been in LF. Rosario looked good in CF, but Grossman is not as fast as either and he got a late jump on the double by Billy Butler and played it off the wall. I think Rosario could have got to it in time to make the catch. I also think Buxton would have got to Vogt's single up the middle, but that one may have been there regardless.

Still, easily the best game the Twins have had all year and, sadly, pretty much only the people who were at the stadium got to see it.