Holy Shift

Last week, I went to a Twins game at Target Field. It was a match-up between Minnesota and Kansas City. Notably, Francisco Liriano and Brian Bannister. 


While I realize this game happened a week ago, it's important to note, because it was a game where Thome hit another ridiculous bomb. 


Thome was walked his first two at bats. The third at bat, he was hit by a pitch. For each at bat, the Royals outfield looked like this:

Note the shift. No one is playing 3rd base and they seem to have a shortstop between 1st and 2nd.


In Thome's 4th and final at bat of the evening, something special happened: 

Peace out, baseball!

The ball bounced out of the park. That was Jim Thome's 586th home run of his career, and tied him with Frank Robinson for the 8th spot on the all-time home run list. Yay!


Brian Bannister was taken out of the game after 2.2 inning pitched. When something like that happens, I actually feel a little bad for the pitcher. That's so terribly embarrassing. Plus, when you hear everyone cheering because you're failing, that can't be a good feeling. 


Moving on, the Twins ended up winning the game 10-3, but not before Pat Neshek takes the mound, walks two batters, allows a run and has me freaking out that we might blow a 7 run lead in the 9th inning. Regardless, the Twins got the win and everyone went home happy. 


Currently, the Twins have a 6 game lead on CHW. It feels good. Today begins the start of a three-game series against Chicago. I know I did the pitching match-ups the last time these two teams met, but I think it's importat to reevaluate the match-ups we'll be watching these next three games:


Tonight: 7:10pm

Danks is 1-2 with an ERA of 5.71 in his last 3 starts. Liriano is 2-0 with an ERA of 1.71 in his last 3 starts. I like the way that looks.

Tomorrow Night: 7:10pm:

Floyd is 1-2 with an ERA of 3.86 in his last 3 outings. Duensing is 1-0 with an ERA of 1.08. Seriously, things are not looking great for Chicago if you're relying on the numbers.

Game #3, Thursday night: 7:10pm:

Buehrle is 0-0 with a 4.50 ERA in his last 3 outings. Pavano is 1-2 with a 2.74 ERA in his last 3 outings. 

So, as stated previously, things are looking pretty good for the Twins. Let's chat for a second about some things. Remember Matt Fox? Probably not, because he only pitched in one game for the Twins. However, he's gone. He threw 5.2 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits. Now? He's wearing a Red Sox uniform. With all of the changes made to our 5-man rotation this year, I find it really difficult to understand how we're willing to just let him go on waivers. I don't think I'm alone in saying I'd like to have seen a 2nd start for Matt Fox in Minnesota. 

Moving on... do you think Justin Morneau is ever going to play baseball again? This guy has been concussed for like 3.5 years now and as far as I know, he's never coming back. The Injury Update page is telling me he's out indefinitely, but it also says that a return in late September is hopeful. 

Listen, Justin, let's maybe talk for a minute about concussions. I have a story for you. In 2006, I went snow tubing. It was really icy and when I'd made it to the bottom of the hill, I stood up and grabbed my tube. In the meantime, one of the fellows I was there with came barreling down the hill at top speed. He ran right into the back of my legs, causing my entire body to flip in the air. I landed head first on a huge patch of ice. When I got up, everyone around me was all, "Hey are you okay?" and "Wow! That looked like it hurt pretty bad!" and "Whoa! Maybe you should sit down for a minute." 

I was all, "Chill out, everyone. I'm totally cool." 

So, I hopped on the tow rope with my tube and rode back up the hill. When I got to the top of the hill, I turned to a friend and said, "Should I go down on my stomach or my back? What did I do last time?"

He turned to me, gave me a pretty frightened look and said, "I don't know. Are you okay?"

"What? Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "I just don't remember how I got here. I mean, I remember riding up the hill, but I don't know what happened this morning, or how I got here."

"You hit your head pretty hard," he said. "I'll ride down next to you and we'll get some help."

So, I tubed down the hill and when I got to the bottom I had a panic attack. It was a sea of Where am I? How did I get here? and What the hell is going on? I didn't end up doing any more tubing that day. I actually ended up going to the hospital. However, I didn't stop tubing all together, Justin, and I think that's the part you need to hear. I think I probably missed 2 days of work because of the concussion I got that day. I absolutely did not say, "Listen, I think I'm going to need about 60 days off because I hurt my head." I would've lost my job. 

In conclusion, I think you need to sit down and really analyze what's going on. First of all, 60 days? That's excessive. I realize it's a head injury and those can be somewhat serious. Here's my theory: you're probably busy knocking up the Missus. I'm totally not surprised when I find out in the off-season that Krista Morneau is expecting your first child. Ugh. I thought we had something special, Justin. How you gonna play me like that?

HE thought you had something special, too...