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Scott Diamond pitched seven beautiful innings against the Red Sox tonight, surrendering no runs with only three hits and zero walks, and giving the Twins one of the best chances to win they've had all year--and win they did. Ryan "Donut" Doumit led the Twins as their catcher, hitting both a double and his first home run of the season.
The game was rather uneventful up until the fifth inning. Doumit hit his double, and then advanced to third on a balk. Chris Parmelee popped up shallow on the third baseline, and neither Red Sox catcher David Ross nor third base man Will Middlebrooks called each other off the attempted catch. Hence, the two players collided into each other and the third baseline wall--although Middlebrooks did make a great play in the fact he held on to the ball despite the miscue. Ross limped back towards home plate and talked to trainers in foul territory for a minute or two. For some reason, Ross stayed in the game, went behind homeplate, then tried to call for more time to talk to the pitcher Ryan Dempster, but home plate umpire Jeff Nelson was having none of it. Dempster had already been in the previous huddle in foul territory and last night the game lasted FREAKING 4 HOURS AND 44 MINUTES.
Wilkin Ramirez then promptly singled in the next at bat--scoring Doumit--and Ross was pulled for the game. Boston catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia--who caught all 11 innings of the game the previous night--came in as a substitute.
The score remained 1-0 until the seventh inning when Ryan Doumit hit his first home run of the season. The home run had to be reviewed because a fan on top of the Green Monster caught the ball near the edge of the home run line, but the instant replay showed the ball was indeed caught on top of the wall, not in front of it.
In the top of the seventh, Gardy put Aaron Hicks in the game as a defensive substitution for Wilkin Ramirez. On one pop up, Aaron Hicks lazily caught the ball and flipped it to Brian Dozier in one lazy, risky motion. The next half inning, TV cameras were focused on a dark part of the Twins dugout as Ron Gardenhire reamed out Hicks for the play. When asked to comment on the interaction after the game, however, Gardy had no comment.
The Twins were up 2-0 in the 8th inning when Red Sox starter Ryan Dempster was pulled, and then the Twins really let loose, scoring four more runs. Even by then, however, it was pretty clear who had dominated the game and who was going to win. Red Sox replacement catcher Saltalamacchia managed a solo home run off Twins relief pitcher Josh Roenicke in the bottom of the ninth inning--but that's about all the Red Sox could muster.
- Scott Diamond: 3 hits, 0 walks, 0 runs over 7 innings pitched.
- Ryan Doumit: 2 for 4, 2 runs, 1st home run of the year.
- Justin Morneau: 2 for 4, 1 run, 1 RBI.
- Joe Mauer: 2 for 4, 1 run, 1 RBI (including his first career hit off Ryan Dempster after 8 at-bats)
- Brian Dozier: 0 for 4, with 3 strike outs (but one run?)
- Jamey Carroll: 0 for 5, with 1 strike out (but 1 run?)
ROLL CALL!
Game thread was again a little dead tonight... starting to think this has something to do with Wild Playoff Games. But anyway--ROLL CALL:
1. less cowbell, more 'neau (44)
2. myjah (37)
3. spanspanspan (30)
4. Sportsavenue (28)
5. DavidRF (27)
6. montanatwinsfan (26)
7. ColossusOfRhode (22)
8. kenzertz (20)
9. SooFoo Fan (8)
10. twinsgirl197 (6)