Gud Twins Tourney, Twinkie Town Title, Game 2: The sixth incensed

One tide-turning inning and one more game in the books.

By Matt Monitto@TeamCrazyMatt May 19, 2022, 5:19pm EDT

Minnesota Twins v Boston Red Sox — Since there’s a Versalles on both teams, you don’t know to which this image refers....

Game 2 Lineups

INSIDE BASEBALLERS	WONDER YEARS
25 - Byron Buxton - CF	20 - Lew Ford - CF
24 - Tom Brunansky - DH	8 - Nick Punto - 3B
6 - Tony Oliva - RF	20 - Rich Reese - 1B
30 - Jimmie Hall - LF	11 - Jacque Jones - DH
2 - Zoilo Versalles - SS	2 - Zoilo Versalles - SS
14 - Kent Hrbek - 1B	23 - Bobby Kielty - RF
9 - Rich Rollins - 3B	40 - Marty Cordova - LF
7 - Joe Mauer - C	7 - Rob Wilfong - 2B
4 - Steve Lombardozzi - 2B	12 - Mark Salas - C
28 - Bert Blyleven - RHP	25 - Joe Mays - RHP

Results

Through five and a half innings, the Inside Baseballers and Bert Blyleven controlled the game.

The sixth inning saw the game evaporate in their hands.

A six-run sixth, keyed by Rich Reese’s triple and Zoilo Versalles’ home run, propelled the Wonder Years to a 6-3 victory and a 2-0 series lead.

Lost in the explosiveness of that one inning was a dominant recovery in Joe Mays’ pitching performance, as the Years’ hurler was nearly perfect over his final five frames on the mound.

But it was Blyleven who started out perfect, retiring the first 14 batters he faced before Bobby Kielty’s fifth-inning double.

Meanwhile, Inside staked out an early lead. Kent Hrbek put the first run on the board with a second-inning solo shot, and Steve Lombardozzi did the same one inning later to make it two-nil:

Tony Oliva’s RBI double staked the Baseballers to a 3-0 lead, and with Blyleven’s pitching, even that small a lead seemed insurmountable.

The Years proceeded to surmount that lead in the bottom of the sixth.

Rob Wilfong opened the frame with a ringing double and moved to third on Mark Salas’ single. Lew Ford brought in Wilfong with a sacrifice fly, and after Nick Punto beat out an infield hit, Reese sent a triple to right-center that tied the game.

Blyleven’s nightmare inning was not yet complete, as an intentional walk to Jacque Jones brought up Versalles:

The home run chased Blyleven from the game and set the new margin at 6-3 in favor of Wonder. And thanks to Mays, that margin would prove untouchable.

While Blyleven started nearly perfect before collapsing, Mays found a groove after Oliva’s RBI double, retiring 15 of the final 16 batters he faced and not allowing another hit. The only remaining baserunner he allowed was a seventh-inning walk to Hrbek who was immediately erased on a 5-4-3 double play.

After Mays’ departure between the eighth and ninth, Dick Hyde entered for the Years and picked up where the starter had left off, sandwiching a lineout between two strikeouts to close the game.