Mariners / Twins Goose-cap

Well that was fun! Nothing like a little 9th inning heroics to get the juices cooking! That is a Dale Brickma (played by Daniel Stern in Rookie of the Year) reference for those of you keeping score at home. Mr. Casilla turned a disappointing (although hardly weep-worthy) evening into a rallying point for the ball club when he popped a single up the middle and scored two runs. Bert Be-Home-Blyleven had the presence of mind to mention that Alexi was the one responsible for plating the go ahead run in the greatest game ever played! That, I submit, was last August 25th when the Twins came back from being down big with an innane rally culminating in a blown save by the corpulent Robert Jenks of the hated Pale Stockings.

I thought it was really pleasant to see Cuddyer turn in a good at bat early in the game against Bedard too, and drive in a run… or two. He is going to be a big deal for the Twins this year – I think he may be a sort of weather vane for the club. And Eric was throwing a devlishly good assortment of pitches, so it was no small matter.

Carlos Gomez is a delightful person. Whether he is flailing like the days of yore or getting a triple as he did tonight, he’s just fun to watch. Gardenhire’s keeping him in the lineup tonight and placing Cuddyer at DH and the Kub-dog on the bench was another indication that Santa really likes that fellow.

The Nick Blackburn we saw tonight was the same Nicholas B-Dog that was hanging around the team down the stretch last summer and fall. That is not a trend we might hope continues. Where Liriano gave up 4 runs yester-eve and Blackburn did the same tonight, the two outings are night and day in my reckoning. The Franchise was able to command his pitches and simply fell victim to a big fly on a mistake pitch – Blackburn was just icky.

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Looking foward to Slowey tomorrow night! Many of the previewing fantasy gurus think this will be a big time breakout season for him.

Have a tremendous evening.