Twins 2, Indians 1: Joe Clutch

Looking for his third not-terrible start as a Twin, Hector Santiago led Minnesota against the Indians (which sounds awful when I phrase it like that.) Cleveland trotted out teen-heartthrob Mike Clevinger whom I’m pretty sure used to be one of the kids in Hanson.

Santiago fulfilled his role as Minnesota Twins™ Pitch-to-Contact SP, giving up one run on a sac-fly in the first and then settling into a groove, pitching 6 scoreless innings while striking out a whopping 2 people. Not flashy, but hey that’s a start I’ll take any day.

In the 2nd Miguel Sano absolutely crushed a ball for a HR. The distance in length wasn’t that impressive, but coming off the bat it looked like it had the launch angle of a space rocket.

(Watch it Here because MLB hates fun and won’t let me embed it yet. I don’t know)

I think the ball that landed was a decoy. The real one has blasted out of orbit where its momentum shall carry it undisturbed for millennia, until somewhere in the vast darkness of space it crashes onto a planet of lizard-men, likely into some fenced in backyard where a giant space-beast claims it and scares local children into buying name-brand shoes.

The game remained 1-1 until the 12th, but a diving catch in right by Max Kepler for the third out of the 9th saved the Twins from entering their half of the 9th trailing.

Then in the 12th, Brian Dozier managed to extend his hitting streak, and the Twin’s inning with a 2-out single. Joe Mauer came to the plate, and after a balk moved Dozier to scoring position, Joe smacked a single to center, scoring Dozier and giving the Twins the victory! 53 wins y’all!

Misc Notes:

• After a baseball lifetime of toil in the minors, professional Australian James Beresford made his MLB debut and also collected his first hit (a single.) Watching the standing ovation he got gave me chills.
• J.T Chargois was awarded the win, his first in the bigs!
• This was Joe Mauer’s first walk off hit since 2007.

Studs: Mauer and Dozier (The walk off-pair), Sano (HR), and Santiago (7 IP, 1 R)

Duds: NO DUDS TWINS WALK-OFF WIN BABY

ROLL CALL! (AKA: The Watching-A-Shitty-Team-On-A-Saturday-Night-Pays-Off Club)

# Recs	Commenter	Comment Link
3	James Fillmore	James's laptop died on Thursday and his phone on Saturday
3	Daniel Carlson	I like the "Tawny is cool" everywhere idea
1	less cowbell, more 'neau	BALK!
1	Joel Hernandez	Lack of Pats so far
1	DNOMN8R314	(Belated exclamation points) !!!!!!!!!!
1	Daniel Carlson	MvpAUER!!!
1	TawnyFroggy	That devious bastard.
1	montanatwinsfan	I know it. This would be so great.
1	SooFoo Fan	Polanco is actually having a pretty good year, .296/.339/.426 in 185 PA
1	TawnyFroggy	Don't worry about it. I got ya. No need for trade.
1	TawnyFroggy	The people need to know.
1	Daniel Carlson	DP Company Wholesale Tools
1	Daniel Carlson	Neither will Rick Porcello

That is one big chicken.