Detroit at Twins. Twins 3, Tigers 2.

Look! Look! A Twins win! And not over some fake team like the freakin' Devil Rays, against whom only losses actually count, (and in the Twins' case, keep counting, again and again like your worst nightmare) but a real baseball team! The De-Troit Tigers!

A 16-run ass-kicking against those freakin' Rays couldn't get the Twins back on track (Note to self: do sting rays have asses?…Don't want to mix metaphors. Ask Jeb later), but maybe beating the resurgent (by "resurgent" we mean they're no longer a 25-man TVs-blooper-and-practical-joke reel) Tigers will help us--hell, at this point we're happy to beat the Breck Junior Varsity Softball Team. And anyway, maybe, instead of scoring 16 runs, what we really needed to do is score just three.

The Twins have developed a bad habit of late of letting their opponents answer any runs they may score (and usually those answers have been quite vehement). But tonight, it was the Twins' turn to answer back. The Tigers scored on Kyle Lohse in the 4th, and the Twins came right back and scored a run of their own. Matt LeCroy led off the inning with his second infield hit of the week, then Corey Koskie singled, then Torii Hunter—who has had a .184 average in his last ten days—lined a beautiful base hit to left, and LeCroy managed to run the 180 feet toward without asphyxiating. Surely, this was a good sign.

Then in the 5th, Joe Mauer (Batgirl's boyfriend) and Guzie caught Alex Sanchez stealing—which saved a run when the next batter parked one to right field. But in the sixth, Corey "I Only Hit Homeruns" Koskie answered with a parked ball of his own, and we were tied.

Then, it fell to our bullpen, who tonight appeared in the just the way they were supposed to—Romero in the 7th, Rincon in the 8th, and Nathan in the 9th. Better yet, each of those pitchers struck out two in an inning, and better yet, none gave up a run. Then suddenly, it was the bottom of the ninth, and Torii Hunter hit the blessed snot out of the ball and was appropriately mauled by teammates who were almost as sick of losing as Batgirl. Three runs was all it took tonight, but that third run reminded us of the Twins of the team April, the team that won games in the eighth and ninth innings, the team that turned opposing pitchers' ERAs into Richter Scale numbers, the team that played with joy and heart…and yes, a little sass. What more could a Batgirl want?

Now, let's do it again tomorrow.

Posted by Batgirl at June 4, 2004 11:35 PM