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That first inning left a little something to be desired. For both sides, to be fair. Ben Revere singled and stole second before Kevin Correia shot himself in the foot, making it first and third with just one out. But the Phillies would score just one. And from that point until the seventh inning, the Minnesota and Philadelphia traded zeroes.
Correia, in spite of stringing together a bunch of goose eggs, was very hittable. After that first inning, the Phills had two base runners in the second and third; Revere tripled in the fourth; the bases were actually loaded in the fifth. Anthony Swarzak came on in the sixth and didn't fare any better but had Correia's luck: with three two-out singles Philadelphia sent Michael Young on Ryan Doumit's arm. Doumit's throw had just enough for Joe Mauer to apply an awkward-looking tag on an awkward looking slide to end the threat.
In the bottom of the seventh, for the first time all night, the Twins forced Cliff Lee to face more than the minimum number of batters in an inning. With two outs and runners on first and second, Justin Morneau looped one into center field. Revere ran perpendicular to the ball's trajectory in order to make a fantastic catch...but he missed it by more than a hair. Mornea cleared the bases, and with it the Twins took a 2-1 lead.
Unfortunately it was the only time all night that the Twins could do more than send three hitters to the dish. Instead, Jared Burton gave up the ghost in very fast order. A double, two singles, and a fielder's choice later, Philadelphia had scored two runs to re-take the lead.
With the loss, the Twins drop to 29-34, and Minnesota only "takes" the series instead of sweeping it. The Tigers come to town starting tomorrow night for three.
ROLL CALL!
- kenzertz (56)
- BCTwins (45)
- ColossusOfRhode (28)
- twinsgirl197 (27)
- DavidRF (21)
- d-mac (20)
- amiller92 (19)
- snakecharmer (16)
- markos (11)
- Devereau (10)
- For better or for worse, Ben Revere was at the center of a lot of what happened tonight.
- It's worth repeating: in eight of tonight's nine innings, the Phillies pitcher faced the minimum.
- Give Morneau the crap he deserves for trying to come home to get Revere in the eighth, but it's worth noting a couple of things. First, foregoing the out at first didn't actually hurt the Twins. Whether Morneau got the out at first or not, the run was going to score to make the game 3-2. Understanding this, Justin clearly just took a shot in the hope that he could snag Revere and keep the game tied for a few more minutes.
- In spite of all the base runners, Correia allowed just the one run in five innings of work, striking out six and allowing eight hits and a walk. That's not ideal, but the one run is perfect. And in terms of runs allowed it was Kevin's best outing since April 28.
- Oswaldo Arcia made a great sliding catch in the seventh, pushing himself into the left field wall in foul territory. It's a good way to twist something or tear a tendon, but moves like that will endear you to a fanbase really damned quickly. You just got back, Oswaldo! Be careful!