Another Great Game

I went to bed in the fourth. The game was zooming along with both Diamond and Hernandez doing some major pruning of batters.

Fast-forward three hours. Chris Colabello hit a two-run homer with no one out and a runner on first in the top of the THIRTEENTH inning. Perkins, being his recently shaky self, gave up a run in the bottom of the thirteenth, but was good enough to pick up his 25th save of the season.

Pleasant surprise? Diamond pitched very well. He has NOT done that recently, but last night he was superb. (Not to start any controversy or anything, but young arms like Gibson and Diamond appear to be pitching much better when Mauer is not their catcher...)

Another pleasant surprise? The Twins had Colabello swing away with no one out in the thirteenth. The Twins ALWAYS bunt in that situation. Remember how a couple of days ago I said that Gardy was a dinosaur who ALWAYS takes the "classic" approach to every singe situation? Last night he proved me wrong. That might be the reason Colabello got such a great pitch to whack out of the park. Something unexpected like that was the difference in the game.

Still a little bummed that these great games don't get over until 1 in the morning. I can't imagine what it's like for a Boston or New York fan who must stay up until 2 a.m. to see the endings to some of these games.

I'm really not sure why the west coast games couldn't start an hour earlier. Sure, the fans would be FORCED to eat their evening meal AT the ballpark, but since nearly everyone eats AT the ballpark anyway I'm not sure why games couldn't be earlier.

I'll put that item of business in my top five things to do when I become the commissioner.

Great pitching. Power when it was needed. A Twins win. It's hard to play a game better than that. Yeah, I guess I'm still a Twins fan. I'm still wondering WHO the Twins will be able to trade before the deadline. Many have mentioned to me that it's possible no other team WANTS what we have.

Sure, they'll gladly take players off our hands at bargain rates, but our only hope of a good trade may be Perkins. And even his stock has went down since the all-star break.

An afternoon game today. IF it's good I may decide to watch all of it. Deduno is pitching, so I am hopeful.