Twins at Milwaukee. Milwaukee 7, Twins 6.
Dear Terry Ryan,
Hello. How are you? I am fine. We’ve never spoken before—well, I’ve spoken to you a lot, but you’ve never been in the room. Anyway, I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. Are you having a nice Father’s Day weekend? Mine’s okay. The Twins lost two in a row, though, and that has tempered BatDad’s celebration a bit.
Well, anyway, that’s not the point of my letter. I’m writing because I’m worried about someone we both know and love. I’m worried about Gardy. I think he has way too much stress in his life. Like yesterday, when Grant Balfour hit a guy with the bases loaded, Gardy took off his cap and you could see steam coming out of the top of his head. That can’t be healthy.
And then today, he left Brad Radke out in the 7th, and you just know that’s because he just doesn’t have anyone to pitch the 7th now. Roa and Fultz had both been used the day before, Rincon is earmarked for the 8th, and the other guys, well… Anyway, Radke had pitched a great game, we’d finally given him some runs, and he’d had a 5-0 lead. What could go wrong?
And then things started to go wrong, but surely Radke could get three outs. Then we could get to Boo Berry, then Count Chocula, then we’d have a magically delicious win. (I’m mixing my cereal metaphors, here, but you get the point.)
Silly rabbit. After Radke had made it a 5-4 game, Gardy put in Aaron Fultz to get the final out of the inning. And we could still win --Fultz, Boo Berry, Chocula. Snap, Crackle, Pop! But then Fultz, oh, well, I don’t know how to say this. Suffice to say there was a two-run homer involved.
Could it be? Had we really given up 6 runs in one inning? Was Gardy going to make it through the game? Well, one thing the Twins are good at, besides losing to the Devil Rays of course, is coming back. We could still come back, yes?
Indeed, Luis Rivas hit a homer of his own, (and how hot has he been since he came off the DL? He should hurt his groin more often!) and we seemed energized again. Until Terry Mulholland came on and in the very first pitch gave up a homer to Geoff Jenkins. And Gardy exploded in bits and pieces all over the Milwaukee dugout.
No, no, he’s okay. Carlos Silva and Jim Kahmann put him together again with some duct tape. The point is, Ron Gardenhire is used to putting in bullpen pitchers and having them do their jobs. He can’t take this stress. And we need to help him out.
We need another bullpen pitcher. A good one, this time. Really. If not for the Twins, if not for Batgirl, then for Gardy. He can’t take another explosion, or another completely ridiculous loss like this. And maybe he could use a spa day, too. Sooz likes Spalon.
Thank you so much for your time. Happy Father’s Day!
Sincerely,
Batgirl