Tampa Bay at Twins. Twins 8, Freakin' Devil Rays 1

Batgirl got home from the game tonight and turned on the BatTivo to review a few highlights—only to discover that during the broadcast FSN was featuring "The Sounds of Nick Punto," which she imagines is sort of like The Sounds of Blackness, except not at all. She is half tempted to watch the whole game again just to learn what, exactly, these sounds are—Batgirl imagines they go something like, "Bonzai" and "Wee wee wee!" and "Tiny Superhero Awayyyyy!" and, mostly, "Oof!" (This one after he belly flopped into third base on a triple--which looked totally cool, except maybe a wee painful. But it's nice to see he's not being, you know, too careful given he's hurting. I'm sure there are some Red Wings we haven't called up yet.)

Speaking of Red Wings, in that little video they show on the Jumbotron as they come to bat, new call-up Josh Broccoli Rabe looks roughly like he's going to pee his pants. You can sort of imagine the guy who filmed it hastily yesterday afternoon trying to coax him with things like, "Can we try it next time with just a little less abject terror?…No? Okay. Just keep on with what you're doing, then."

And Rabe's first couple of MLB at bats did not, perhaps go as planned. It took poor Rondell White all season to figure out how to get on base—and tonight he had a single and a walk in his first two at bats, each wiped out by a lline-out double play--the first from Rabe, the second Tyner. One imagines there were some "Sounds of Rondell White" after the second one. But Rabe did get his first MLB hit tonight, and Rondell White was 2-3 with a walk, and Little Nicky Punto and Castillo extended their hitting streaks, Punto had 3 RBIs, Mauer went 2-4, and Morneau went BOOM, and oh—there was a pitcher, too….who was it again?

Oh, that was Francisco Liriano, Rookie of the Year and your 2006 Cy Young award winner. A few Liriano starts ago, Goober called and left a message for Batgirl that went something like this: "You know, the other teams just wish they had a pitcher like Johan Santana. They're so jealous of us because we have him and they don't. Well, guess what…. We copied him."

One can only imagine that that bowel-loosening look of fear on Josh Rabe's face was mirrored by each Devil Ray batter as he came to bat against Cisco today. The Kid retired the first nine, then ten in a row, struck out seven, allowed two hits, and put his ERA nicely back below 2. He would have gotten a shutout had not Terry Tiffee, at the very moment a low throw came his way, suddenly realized, "Holy God, I have twins!" Can you blame him? Imagine the "Sounds of Tiffee" coming out of that house.

Batgirl is just so damned happy right now. Maybe a little bewildered—how do you lose three outfielders in one weekend and still win five in a row? How is it that we're suddenly so good? How is it that our offensive heroes are Little Nicky Punto, Jason Tyner, yes, even Rondell White? How is it that we ever got Francisco Liriano in the first place?

It is not a Batgirl's place to question, merely to cheer as Little Nicky Punto rounds the bases and cries wee, wee, wee all the way home.

BatNotes: The Dome is sponsoring Joe Mauer Sideburn Night with paste-on sideburns. This is, of course, not nearly as cool as Batgirl's Joe Mauer Sideburn Contest.