After this series, yours should too.
We were lucky to win one of the games against the Royals, really. They had us beat in the first game of the series, but they shot themselves in the foot to allow Twins fans to congratulate themselves on how good their team was for one more night. It's really rather generous of them. Thanks, Kansas City!
Rather than dwell on the negatives from tonight, and they were plentiful, I'm going to dwell on the one part of the game that brought joy to my heart without fail: Jason Bartlett. He had a great night in the field and at the plate, making a handful of diving catches while going 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored. Three times in this game he came up with a ball he had no business coming up with, and twice he was in a position to make the throw for the out. The third time he momentarily prevented a run from scoring. I knew Bartlett was going to be an improvement over Castro, but not THIS much. Unfortunately I can't find any pictures of his spectacular catches and relays. If you saw the game, you know what I'm talking about.
Joe Mauer had an interesting Ninja-Style swing that knocked in two runs. Justin Morneau took a huge chance, gunning for a double when Royals' center fielder Joey Gathright took his time getting to what should have been a single. Unforunately, Mauer allowed a run to score when a nice relay from Jason Kubel in left field took a somewhat awkward skip in front of home plate. Later in the game, Mauer and Juan Rincon mixed up their signals, allowing for a fastball-not-slider to get under Joe's glove. Mauer recovered the ball but couldn't get it to Rincon in time to get the runner. Justin Morneau, after taking some initiative with his chancey double, was tagged out running to third on a ground ball to the shortstop.
Mistakes were made, pitches weren't located, and double plays killed scoring chances with no outs. All-in-all, tonight was typical of what we saw from the Twins against the Royals in this series: they made mental mistakes, and bounces didn't always go our way. Whether the Twins were "looking past" the Royals, or if they were tired, or if they weren't prepared, or if they just didn't have it during this series, I can't say. The disappointment is there, but after the month we've just finished, there was bound to be a loss at some point. It's just too bad they had to come against Kansas City.
The Twins have tomorrow off before they play three against the Rangers to usher in the All Star break. Friday's matchup will be between Carlos Silva and the rarely-used John Wasden. Let's hope we can get some heads back in order by then.