Minnesota Twins 3, San Diego Padres 1: Rosario dongs 10th-inning win

You knew that after yesterday’s 16-0 whomping of the Padres, Minnesota would scuffle to score tonight. It makes no sense, statistically; teams don’t use up all their offense in a big win and have nothing left over for the next game. That’s illogical & irrational. But you knew it would happen, nonetheless. For this is baseball, where the Weird is King.

Perhaps the awareness only came to you after Joe Mauer got caught stealing in the first inning (it was a hit-and-run, but still: really, Molitor?) Or when the Twins took a 1-0 lead on a wild pitch and subsequent wild throw to third; it might have been then that you submitted to the oddness of baseball’s mercurious gods.

Maybe you sensed it from the magnificently-bizarrely-named San Diego starter Dinelson Lamet, who is a strikeout guru and also walks lots of guys; he did not disappoint. Or when Padres catcher Austin Hedges, a guy who rivals Drew Butera at the plate, went solo homer off Trevor Hildenberger, a top Twins reliever.

Your sensation of "strange, yet eerily predictable" may have been heightened in the 7th inning, when Minnesota loaded the bases thusly: single, then single that ricocheted off pitcher, then HBP. Then a prompt 6-2-3 double play and Brian Dozier strikeout.

It all worked out, though. Eddie Rosario came through in the 10th with a two-run dong.

The elation was saddened somewhat by a large meteor which seems to have taken out Target Field at approximately 10:55, or at least zapped 96.3 off the dial. TT extends our condolences to the Provus & Gladden familes. Not the Atteberrys, though. That guy was a definite baseball super-nerd, and we don’t cotton to the likes of nerds around these parts.

Seriously — my radio just stopped picking up 96.3 at that point. Not “the signal became spotty,” it utterly disappeared. That’s how this game went. It’s the kind of thing that leaves you feeling like tomorrow you might be offered a job breeding new humans for the Mars mission, via one insanely attractive astronaut lady at a time, or maybe at 2 AM you could be rounded up by agents of doom and shipped to Azkaban Prison for your crimes against Space Hitler. Anything can happen, and in baseball, it always eventually does.

Studs: Rosario, this cooler of Gatorade, and Ervin Santana (6.0 IP, 7 SO, 0 ER.)

Duds: None, Twins win, universal amnesty granted.

Comment of the gamethread goes to this suitably bizarre Target Field story shared by gintzer:

“Last night, my wife and I were waiting in line to enter the Twins game. An employee in a Twins polo was walking around and asking people if it was their first Twins game.

She was giving away some type of picture to the fans if they said it was their first game. She stopped and talked to the couple in front of us and gave them the picture. She then turned away from us and started to walk away. I called out to her, "Hey, this is my first game". She turned around, looked at me with a disapproving look, and said that she didn’t believe me, and that I looked like a veteran of Twins games. I said no way and that I was from a small town and this was my first Twins game. She still did not look like she believed me and asked me where I was. For no particular reason I said "Barnesville, MN population 331". She still looked like she didn’t believe me and shook her head, said congrats, and walked away without giving me the picture. I guess I take all this from this lady as a compliment.”

Fits the game and the season pretty well, no?