Bartlett’s safe in the sixth

This is a bit of a delayed game report, especially given that the really exciting Twins game was Tuesday night’s nailbiter against the White Sox*… but I have pictures, so that ought to make up for it. (Photo credits all go to my father.)

This past weekend was the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the 1965 American League Champion Twins. Sunday was also the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles played at Met Stadium, former home of the Twins and now site of the Mall of America. In honor of the event (okay, not really), I came home to see a game. Prior to the current Twins face off with the Mariners, we were introduced to the Twins legends of ’65 — Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, Mudcat Grant (who took a few steps without his crutches for the crowd), Frank Quilici, and probably some people I’m forgetting. There were three “first” pitches (and that’s a rant for another time — there can only be one first pitch) by some Twins management who were involved with the team in 1965 and then the real game started.

The Mariners struck first in the top of the first with a Raul Ibanez homerun to put Seattle up 1-0. But the Twins struck back immediately with a Joe Mauer triple followed by a LeCroy single. Some fans behind me immediately started talking about Mauer’s chances of hitting for the cycle. When he singled in the fourth, I started thinking that maybe it wasn’t impossible. But it was not to be.

The Twins were down 3-1 going into the bottom of the fifth. They quickly scored two runs off of two doubles, a single, and a sacrifice ground ball hit by Nick Punto. With Shannon Stewart on third, just waiting to be hit home, up stepped Mighty Joe Mauer to the plate, looking for a double or a homerun to continue his quest for the cycle. But the Mariners had other ideas — Joel Pineiro intentionally walked him. And this set the stage for Lew Ford to hit a three run homerun, his second in three days. With managing like that, I thought I was watching the Tigers. Mauer came up to the plate two more times, but the Mariners just kept walking him. Alas, I’ve still never seen a cycle live.

In the 6th, with the Twins up 7-3, Jason Bartlett doubled and scored on a Shannon Stewart single to make the final score 8-3. But the excitement wasn’t quite over. In the bottom of the 7th, the Mariners brought in Clint Nageotte to pitch — and he only got one pitch. Not one at bat — one pitch. He threw the ball at Lew Ford’s head. Ford got out of the way, but that was enough for home plate umpire Ron Darling, who immediately ejected Nageotte. Ford ended the at bat with a new pitcher by flying out to center.

Oh, but I’ve forgotten the best part of the game… since it was the 40th anniversary of the Beatles concert, the between innings music was all Beatles. Beatles and baseball… I was in heaven.

* About that nailbiter… Freddie Garcia of the Evil Sox pitches a one-hitter and Cy Young winner Johan Santana pitches a three-hitter. Guess who won the game? Well, thanks to a Jacque Jones homer in the 8th, it wasn’t Garcia.

In honor of the Red Sox being in town, tonight I made the 45 minute drive to Detroit, despite climbing gas prices, and watched the game at Comerica Park. And while I may have missed last night’s streakers and Schilling’s blown save, I think I definitely made the right choice to go tonight. I sat very close to my seats in the second game of last month’s double header against the Twins, but three rows closer.
Although you might not guess it by the final score, the game was a close one. The Red Sox jumped out early on a homer by Varitek that also scored Ramirez, who had reached base on a walk. Until the sixth inning, the Sox were in that rare position of having more runs (2) than hits (1). Other than Varitek’s homer, Detroit’s starter, Nate Robertson, pitched an outstanding game. The Tigers first scored in the fifth with four hits resulting in two runs to tie it up. In the bottom of the eighth, the Tigers went ahead when Magglio Ordonez hit a sacrifice fly that scored Chris Shelton.
At this point in the game, Robertson was pitching a two hitter (including Varitek’s left field blast), but for reasons unbeknownst to nearly all Tiger fans that called up the post-game show, manager Alan Trammell replaced him in the ninth with Fernando Rodney. “Oh man,” said the guy behind me, “Trammell must want another shot at Schilling if he’s bringing in this guy. He’s the worst pitcher in the league.” The scouting report pleased me, and Rodney didn’t disappoint… the Red Sox fans. After Renteria flied out to left, the namesake of my future son, David “Big Papi” Ortiz, came to the plate and jacked a homerun off Rodney (30th of the year) to tie the game and send it to extra innings.
And what an extra inning! Trammell put in another pitcher, Craig Dingman, and, man, did the Sox ding him. In the 2/3 of the inning that he lasted, he was responsible for 2 earned runs off of a pair of singles by Tony “Who died and made you Mark Bellhorn?” Graffanino and Kevin Youkilis, making his ERA for the game 27.00 (and eventually serving him with the loss). But that ERA was nothing compared to the infinite ERA put up by Jamie “The streakers should be strung up by their toes” Walker. Walker faced four batters and gave up an RBI single to Damon, a single to Renteria, a three run homerun to Ortiz, and a double to Manny Ramirez. When Ortiz hit his 31st roundtripper of the season, bringing the score to 8-3, the stadium started emptying faster than a pitcher of pims at Amrys’s birthday weekend. But even if the fans were done, the Sox weren’t. Just to rub salt in the wound, Varitek hit his second dinger of the night of off the new Tigers pitcher, Franklyn Germán, to bring the score to 10-3. Millar mercifully decided to end the half-inning after that by popping up to the catcher.
But wait… as fruitless as it seemed, the Tigers still had their half of the 10th to battle. And after two quick outs, they actually did rally a bit. After two walks and a single, the bases were loaded for Craig Monroe, who proceeded to hit his first career grand slam to bring the score to 10-7. Suddenly the few remaining Tigers fans left in the stadium woke up… just in time to watch Brandon Inge fly out to Adam “Who the heck is this?” Stern to end the game.
What surprised me most, and perhaps it shouldn’t have, were the number of Sox fans at the game — I’d estimate a third of the 32,129 people in attendance. The guy behind me was a little annoyed by this, although he decided that I was respectable a) because of my scorebook and b) because I was a Twins fan and not an Indians fan. According to him, back when Jacobs Field opened and Cleveland’s games were always sold out, Indians fans used to flock to Detroit in troves when their team came to town. As this was back in the mid-90s when the Tigers were even more horrific than they are now, Cleveland fans would out number Detroit fans. Red Sox fans weren’t quite that numerous, but I had many more allies tonight than I did when the Twins were in town.
And speaking of the Twins… they beat the White Sox tonight 9-4 in 16 innings. And the Yankees lost to Tampa Bay, 4-3, in 11 innings. Today seems to be the day for extra inning games with good outcomes.

Starting Thursday, I’ll be off on a whirlwind tour of Canada and upstate New York, with planned stops at Niagara Falls (alone), Rochester (new home of Melissa Cain), Cooperstown (for the Hall of Fame, naturally), and Albany Slingerlands (for Amrys’s birthday shenanigans).
In order to prepare for the Cooperstown visit, I was checking out the Hall of Fame website and wound up browsing the online exhibits, particularly the photo contest. There’s a great shot of a double rainbow at Fenway and of Bill Mueller laying out for a catch. Remember when Dusty Baker’s son ran out to get the bat prior to the end of the play during the 2002 World Series and almost got plowed over? Well, perhaps this will refresh your memory (ESPN article for those who really don’t remember). But my favorite picture is this image of Comiskey as seen through a puddle’s reflection. I love the sepia tones. When I conjure up a mental image of “baseball,” it looks something like that picture.