My first game at the Dome (this year)

Before I get onto baseball, I know we said that we would be doing a live-blog of every Wild game until the end of the season, but I ended up going to the Metrodome to watch the Twins beat Baltimore. The Wild ended up winning their game 3-0 so it’s probably better that I didn’t watch… Like I said before I never seem to see a goal scored and that is doubly true for a Wild goal. In other Minnesota sports news the T-wolves lost to King James and his Jesters. I’m done with this team, maybe for good if they come back next season with the same roster. I pledge that my only Timberwolves related post from here until the draft will be an attempt at another interview with Bracey Wright to ask him what he thinks of his new team’s potential and some real dirt on his former T-wolves teammates.

This game was not quite as exciting as the opener, but none-the-less a victory is always a better game to watch than a loss. The varying play of the two nights shows the range that this team has and that they can play on the defensive weaknesses of their opponents no matter who they are. Yesterday when the Twins started the scoring off with back-to-back HRs, today it was Melvin Mora’s light up the scoreboard with a homerun. Boof had a tough inning, by the time the 3^rd was over his pitch count was in the mid-fifties and the Twins were down by 2.

The Twins played an NL type of game last night- they stole bases and advanced runners just like Ozzie has always claimed to do. We stole 5 bases, Mauer stole one and Tyner had an extremely embarrassing stolen base… the only thing more embarrassing than him coming up a good 5 feet short of the base was the fact that he managed to get to it without being tagged. To add insult to injury Tyner came home as the winning run moments later. If I ever get a hold of the video I’ll make sure to post it, it’s amazing. He should probably ask Troy Williamson about that Nike sight thing; there has to be something wrong with his depth perception.

A few things that I noticed: Castillo already has 3 infield hits, Morneau is batting around .675, and Cuddayer is having trouble warming his bat up. I see no problem with Cuddayer yet because it is only the second game, but it’s the same way with Boof (and I’ll elaborate in a second). If the problem persists I’ll have to shit a brick, because last year was Cuddy’s breakout year and could easily be the career year, too.

As for Boof, the youngest member of the starting rotation threw way too many pitches in his first outing. He did, however, retire 10 of the last 11 batters and recover from that bad 3^rd inning. I bought cheap tickets to the game and as a consequence had to listen to someone from Baltimore root for their team, but in a way it was enlightening. I now understand why so many people have us picked to take 4^th in the division after winning it last year. The Orioles’ remarked that the Twins would do badly this year because behind Johan there was no solid starter- correct. What he failed to understand was that the bullpen is as good as a 2^nd and 3^rd solid starter… and they play every night. Boof gave us some quality innings, and handed over a tie game. One run later we had a win.

I’m kind of glad that everyone can overlook a team that can play ball in more than one way, has the best bullpen, a ton of prospects waiting in the wings if the starters falter, won the division 4 out of the last 5 years and has the reigning Cy young, MVP and batting champ.

I love baseball season.