Chicago at Twins. Bitch Sox 10, Twins 3

Yesterday, Matt LeCroy totally ruined Batgirl's whole treatise on all the injuries and how we were putting a bunch of Triple AAA guys and some T-ball call-ups in the lineup and how people keep saying Doug and Corey, et al, are somehow fungible. In her nightmares, Batgirl sees the 2005 Twins looking something like the 1995 Twins, with three respectable Major League baseball players and a lot of guys they found at the local sports bar.

That's roughly how tonight's line-up looked, and played. Esteban Loaiza just didn’t have his stuff tonight, and in the first inning it seemed like this game could be a blow-out. Well, it was….just not for us. Seth Greisinger, who had out-pitched Loaiza just the week before, allowed six runs in the second inning. Greisinger became the fifth starter when Rick Helling got his leg broken in spring training. Helling's now better, and last week it seemed there would be no room for him on the Twins staff. Another start like this, and Helling may find himself with a one-way ticket to MSP, first class. They have ice cream in first class.

Certainly, Greisinger was not helped by shoddy defense—we had two errors in the first two innings, from Offerman and Cuddyer. Cuddy's play at third base has been extremely shaky, and I just don't see how he can be considered some sort of substitute for Koskie. Cuddy's a good hitter, with a lot of potential, and he's just the cutest thing this side of Lew Ford, but his play at 3rd just is not, as of yet, up to what the Twins need. Batgirl still loves you, Cuddy, she totally wants you on the team, and she still thinks you're kinda hot.

It sounds strange to say that the Twins were still in it after a six-run second, but Loaiza seemed destined to implode. He'd given up two runs in the first, and it could have been more were it not for a bad-luck double play. And he just never seemed in control. But the Twins just couldn't convert tonight. We had opportunities, but they flitted away in the breeze like so many All-Star chads-and other than Jacque Jones's Zeus-like upper deck homer in the fifth, there was no more scoring for our Twins tonight.

If you detect a note of grumpiness in Batgirl's prose, it is because Team Batgirl was at the game tonight and we all felt that things could have gone a wee better. Plus it's Bitch Sox time, and that's time for our A-Game. Plus Frank Thomas got a home run, and that really ruins Batgirl's night.

So Team Batgirl wants to encourage our motley crew of reserves and Bad News Bears to forget this game, get a good night's sleep, and bring it tomorrow. And as for our starters--feel better, you hear?

Corey and Shannon in the Training Room.