Okay, now that I've got my Chip Caray "fisted" joke out of the way, we can get down to business. This was, by no stretch of the imagination, an awful game. I had an idea it wasn't going to be great with the off-center camera angles and Bert Blyleven calling a nationally televised game (sorry folks, but I'm not a Bert fan), but I thought the actual baseball action would be somewhat interesting. Instead, we were subject to one hell of a terrible game.
Samuel Deduno has been riding the luck dragon for most of 2012, but he had no luck today. His typical spotty control struck again, as he allowed a solo home run to Austin Jackson on his very first pitch, he allowed a 3-run homer to Delmon Young, and he walked 3 batters in only 2 1/3 innings on his way to spotting the Tigers an early 7-0 lead. With a doubleheader looming on Sunday, the Twins were fortunate to get 3 2/3 innings out of Anthony Swarzak and an additional 2 from Luis Perdomo, saving the rest of the 'pen for tomorrow.
The Twins offense wasn't any better, as they did muster 7 hits but couldn't push anyone across against Tigers starter Doug Fister. He tallied his first career shutout while striking out 7 Twins.
As a Twins fan, there was really only two things of interest in this game. First, Joe Mauer did pick up some ground in the batting title race on Miguel Cabrera, as Mauer went 2 for 4 while Cabrera was 1 for 4. Mauer is now .009 points behind Cabrera for the AL lead.
Second, there was a quizzical play that occurred at second base made by one of the most quizzical players in Twins history, and that was by Alexi Casilla. He was on second with 1 out in the 5th thanks to a leadoff double when Denard Span came to the plate. Span lifted an infield fly in the vicinity of second base. Casilla retreated to the base and although shortstop Jhonny Peralta was near Casilla the whole time, Casilla chose to duck his head down. Peralta ended up crashing into Casilla and missed the fly ball in the process, but Casilla was called out for interfering with Peralta. Although Casilla did nothing to suggest he intentionally got in the way of Peralta, he did make absolutely no attempt to get out of Peralta's way. As home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez explained to Drew Butera in the middle of the 5th, had Casilla made any attempt to get out of Peralta's way, he would have been fine. Instead, Casilla turned his back to Peralta and was Hrbek'd off the base (thanks to Myjah for the Hrbek analogy).
Studs
Joe Mauer (2 for 4, 2B), Anthony Swarzak (3 2/3 IP, 1 R, 2 K), Luis Perdomo (2 IP, 0 R)
Duds
Samuel Deduno (2 1/3 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 3 BB, 1 K), Ryan Doumit (0 for 4), Trevor Plouffe (0 for 3), Pedro Florimon (0 for 3)