With the exception of that ugly three-run second inning, Pedro Hernandez was actually pretty good. He faced the minimum in the first, fourth, and fifth innings en route to what we might dub "The Minnesota Twins Quality Start". He allowed four hits over five innings, walking three and allowing just the runs he surrendered in the second. J.J. Hardy was the only Oriole to leave the yard.
Anthony Swarzak, Brian Duensing, Jared Burton, and Glen Perkins combined for four shutout innings.
At the plate, Justin Morneau's bases-loaded double scored a pair in the third. Chris Parmelee added another on a sacrifice fly to tie the game in the seventh, and Aaron Hicks singled on the very next pitch to bring home what would ultimately be the winning run.
In short: the Twins win! AGAIN! The Twins also win the series. AGAIN!
ROLL CALL!
Here's a list of our Top 10 commenters from today's game thread.
- DavidRF (37)
- SooFoo Fan (36)
- Sportsavenue (36)
- myjah (25)
- twinsbrewer (17)
- twinsgirl197 (17)
- carlpavanosmoustache (16)
- Panthers FTW (14)
- Purpledork (13)
- SotaFan27 (11)
Bullet Point Highlights
- Anthony Swarzak went 1.1 scoreless innings in his debut, although he wasn't necessarily the most effective. He walked one and allowed a pair of hits, walked one, and hit a dude. But hey, no harm no foul.
- For the second time this year the Twins have been gifted a big hit on a fly ball that should have been a pretty easy out. Adam Jones and Judge Nolan Reimold both thought the other was going to catch Justin Morneau's pop up to mid-center field, and it dropped without a breath's distance of them both.
- I will begrudgingly admit that Alexi Casilla actually did get that tag down on Darin Mastroianni.
- Chris Parmelee's sac fly wasn't fancy, but it was clutch. He came off the bench in the seventh for that specific purpose, and he did his job.