A's 261, Twins -7
In spite of Justin Morneau's home run in the top of the first inning, you just could tell something was amiss, couldn't you? Denard Span walks, gets picked off; Joe Mauer doesn't move him along or really do anything of note. Morneau blasts one, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.
Twenty minutes later and we still weren't out of the bottom of the inning. By the end of the second it was 12-1, at which point I caught myself thinking Well if Oakland can come back from 12-2...
All hopes of that evaporated in short order. As I write, it's still 15-1 and the Twins aren't showing any signs of life. The game isn't even over and I can't tell you how long of an afternoon this has been.
Glen Perkins was replaced by Kevin Mulvey three batters into the second inning, when he hadn't retired a single one and had allowed a 5-1 deficit to an 8-1 hole in 11 pitches. Mulvey, sadly, didn't fare much better. He did get the three outs required by the spirit of Abner Doubleday, but not before Oakland could tag him for four runs off six hits. From that point on it was the R.A. Dickey show, who (in spite of a rough fifth) pitched admirably. He sucks up innings when all you need is to get through a game without needlessly using up arms, and in spite of his rough patch recently has been a very respectable pitcher this year. Having said that, it'd be nice if he didn't give up a base hit every time he threw something that wasn't a knuckleball.
That was a hard pill to swallow. We'll let this series die where it is and restart the season tomorrow. Ish.
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Stars of the Game
#3: Denard Span: In spite of getting caught, he did pick up a couple of hits and a walk. That's great work.
#2: R.A. Dickey: Not the most effective job, but when you're already behind as much as the Twins were it's a bigger deal to just suck up those innings than it is to be a lock-down pitcher. Dickey went 4.1 innings to bridge the failed starter/end-of-game arms. Who then allowed Oakland to score again.
#1: Justin Morneau: Hey, a homer is a homer, and for one brief moment the Twins had the lead.