Twins Player of the Game: April 16, 2012

Did you see that game last night? Did you see it?!? Did you see Bat-Girl on Twitter? Friends, last night was an amalgamation of many fantastic things, not the least of which was the Twins topping the Yankees in New York, 7-3. Check out Fischean's recap right here.

Now it's time to perform your community civic duty, and vote on who deserves the first Twinkie Town Player of the Game nod for 2012!

Carl Pavano - Pavano was sick, settling in after a three-run first inning. At one point he retired 11 Bombers in a row, and over his final five innings of work the only ball to leave the infield was a Raul Ibanez fly ball out. We'll talk a bit more about Pavano's start later today, but he was working the edges of the zone, getting the Yanks to take ill-advised cuts, and by the seventh inning he could throw it wherever he wanted and still get a called strike. Last night was a crash course in how to expand the strike zone.

Joe Mauer - Mauer had the game's highest WPA, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, walk, and the go-ahead hit in the fifth. He was all over the base paths last night. Oh, and get this: he also stole a base. Joe Mauer stole a friggin base, people.

Justin Morneau - Morneau took a monster cut on a first-pitch cookie fastball from Freddy Garcia and launched it deep into the New York night, leading off the sixth inning in style and giving the Twins a big insurance run. Sure, they'd get a couple more, but expanding that lead from one to two in that fashion gave the game a sense of inevitability that I haven't seen from the Twins yet this season. It was the inevitable sense of a Minnesota win.