Twins at Baltimore. Twins 6, Orioles 4. (10 Innings.)

Early in the broadcast of today's game, Marney Gellner did a piece on Little Nicky Punto and his new ascension to the starting second baseman job. According to Gardy, Punto would keep his position as long as he did the little things right.

Well, naturally, the little things are what Little Nicky Punto does best. Why, just yesterday I found him in my backyard wrestling the garden gnomes to the ground, and you should have seen what he did to the pixies. (I hate pixies.) After his fight, he curled up in a little tulip and fell asleep. I was able to feed him water by folding together a rose petal and sliding the dew drops into his little mouth.

But it's not just the pixies that Little Nicky Punto has been hurting. Today, he continued his tiny rampage over Major League Baseball, using his small ball skills to drive the Orioles to distraction—much like a mosquito or a gnat, or even one of those damned pixies.

LNP's heroics began in the first inning tonight. The Twins were facing Erik Bedard, who had allowed exactly one earned run in his last three starts, and especially after the whole Daniel Cabrera/anal probe episode yesterday, it seemed runs might be hard to come by tonight. So when Shannon Stewart led off with a hard hit ball past third that was probably a double though it was scored an error, it seemed we needed to seize that opportunity, for they would be hard to come by tonight. And then, up came LNP who laid a bunt down the first base line to advance Stewie to 3rd with no outs. Really, it was a beautiful bunt, perhaps the most beautiful bunt in the history of the world not executed by Derek Jeter. In case you did not see it, here...a reenactment:

Stewie would eventually score the first run of the game after an RBI single straight up the middle by Justin Morneau, and you could feel the waves of relief over Twins Territory, for we had Brad Radke on the mound, he was still glowing from his awesome Cupcake Day performance, and for once he had a lead. A lead! Even better than that, he retired the side in the first inning (for—hold your breath, sports fans—the SECOND GAME IN A ROW), with help in thanks to a hustling foul ball catch by, of course, LNP.

Then, in the second inning, Miguel "He Hurts Us Lots" Tejada led off with a single, then Rafael Palmerio hit a long fly to deep center and Miggy decided to advance. Hunter's throw to second was a little late, but in fielding it, Little Nicky rolled backwards into a headstand and it was totally freaking cool. Like this:

In the game thread, someone mentioned she'd read a quote from Radke where he said he didn't like pitching with a lead because he felt so much pressure to hold it. Perhaps that is why, with Miggy on second, he served up such a perfect gopher ball to Javy Lopez—I mean BatMom could have hit that, and she's been strictly pitching in the AL.

In fact, the O's hit three homers off Radke today—and it began to seem like it would be another long game. The Twins rallied, though, with a run in the fifth that was created by—wait for it—Matthew LeCroy's hustle. Big LeRoy led off the inning with a walk, which is his favorite way to get to first. The only problem with walking is sometimes the next batter will hit a sharp grounder that looks like a double play, only Melvin Mora throws the ball into right field and for some reason, Newmie tells you to keep going past second, all the way to third base even though every Twins fan is speechless with horror and you are speechless too because you've never run that far in your life. But you try, you do, for you love this team and you will give it your all even if it kills you. And the crazy thing is, you make it, you do, and you're still alive, though barely—and you are desperately trying to catch your breath but then Michael Cuddyer hits a fly to short center, and you know he totally could have put a little more on the ball but he didn't, just to spite you, and you can barely breathe but you have to lug your way home because, really, it is a sac fly and any normal person would be able to score on that fly, and so you better try as well even though you are not a normal person, you are Matthew LeCroy. And the miracle of it all is you do score, you do, and you have just enough time to be happy about it before you pass out and have to be given oxygen.

But that is not the point. The point is that the Twins created another run in the 7th (Sweetcheeks walk, Big LeRoy single, Ford Focus sac fly) and suddenly it was 4-3 and there was a chance—just a chance—we could come back and win this thing. But only by doing the little things right…

The O's put in Jorge Julio, who had the kindness not to throw at anyone's head this time, and Julio got Shannon Stewart out on a fly ball. Little Nicky Punto then hit a grounder to second, and ran his little heart out all the way up the first base line and dove head first into the base.

Safe.

It was gutsy, crazy, and dare I say, super, but it was only a tiny hint of what was to come. The O's brought in their closer, and Chairman Mauer came to bat with the clear intention of bunting LNP over, but soon he had two strikes on him, so Little Nicky decided to take off for second all by his little self.

Then B.J Ryan threw a wild pitch and though Mauer threw up a frantic "stay" signal, Punto made a 90 foot dive to third.

A Chairman sac fly later, and the game was tied.

After the deficit had been made up, Little Nicky Punto was content to let others have the glory. Jesse Crain had two on in the 8th but then retired six in a row, and in the 10th it was time for Jacque Jones and Shannon Stewart to bring out their big guns. It was a great win, the kind of win you remember well into the season, and Little Nicky could just watch happily, secure in the knowledge that, in his small way, he had saved the day.