Mauer

For the second straight night Joe Mauer got four hits. And his only out was a screaming, sinking line-drive as well. I rag a lot on Joe, and I think rightfully so, but when this guy gets hot, there is no sweeter swing in baseball.

The Twins needed all of his hits last night, and several more from other players just to stay ahead of yet another poor Pelfrey outing. It ALMOST looked like Pelfrey was going to have a good game after throwing so few pitches in those first two innings, but then, in typical Twins starter fashion he lost whatever he had, and ended up leaving after five innings giving up four runs.

Perkins picked up his third save of the season but looked horrible doing so. That last play of the game is worth looking up on the internet. It's bound to be web gem.

ANYWAY, the Twins have now won TWO straight and are just ONE game below .500. As bad as the starters have been, the offense (especially Mauer) has been good enough to pull out a few.

I noticed that Gardy FINALLY dropped Hicks to the eighth spot in the order. Dozier is now in the leadoff spot. ANYBODY would be better there right now. Willingham is still sick and did not play last night. If this is like what's going around lately, he won't be feeling well for a couple of more days. It's possible he could play today, but anybody who has had this bug will tell you that it's effects will be with him for a while yet.

Did I mention that Hicks was 0 for 2 last night and is now batting .044? It really is hard to imagine any player being worse than this at the plate while still being in the lineup every day. At least he was patient enough to walk twice.

As always, it's nice to play in our division. Believe it or not, both Chicago and Cleveland trail us, and the Twins are only TWO games out of first place.

Attendance was right around 23,000, but once more a lot of those fans stayed home or left early because of the colder weather. The forecast is continued cold for at least another week.

The Twins play at Chicago this coming weekend, but come back home Monday. The weather will still not feel like baseball weather.

Vance Worley pitches for the Twins tonight. My hopes are not high.

I have to admit that watching the games in high def over the last couple of seasons means that I notice differently things now. Last night, the lady behind home plate, in the best seat in the house, just above the Target logo was busy looking down at her cell phone all night long, not paying any real attention to the game.

Seriously, when Mauer was up in the second inning with the bases loaded, she didn't look up once to see what was going on. EVEN when he smashed that single up the middle and all of the fans around her started cheering, she didn't stop playing with her phone long enough to even glance up and see what had just happened.

The BEST seat in the house and she just wasted it...

I'm going to be looking for her tonight, now, too. Seats like that don't come easy or cheap so I'm thinking her husband must be the rich fan and she just comes along just to be with him.

WASTED!