Today I finally took advantage of the fact that I now live mere blocks from AT&T Park and walked over after work to see the Twins, on a 7 game winning streak, take on the Giants, on a 4 game losing streak.
And holy cow… most fun first inning ever! The Twins had 8 consecutive hits to start the ballgame. Giants fans were booing the pitcher, Madison Bumgarner, by about the 7th hit. Only the pitcher, Carl Pavano, broke the streak… who knows what would have happened if this had been in an AL park with a DH. When Ben Revere followed Pavano’s strikeout with his second hit of the inning, a double scoring two runs to put the Twins up 8-0 with still only one out, Bumgarner was yanked. His ERA for the game was 216. No, there are no decimal points in there.
Apparently the last time an American League team started the game with 8 hits was the Yankees in 1990.
People born in 1990 can legally drink now. (That’s kind of depressing, actually.)
The rest of the game was fairly mild by comparison — Pavano was on his game, pitching six shutout innings before giving up a solo homer in the 7th and another run in the 8th. Guillermo Moto, who came in to replace Bumgarner, probably should have been the starter as he only gave up 3 hits and no runs. In the 9th, just to rub the blowout in, Alexi Casilla hit his second homerun in as many games to bring the final score to 9-2.
Wait back up… because this is probably going to get lost in the wake of the first inning massacre… Alexi Casilla, who prior to Sunday hadn’t hit a homerun all year, has hit one in back to back games. Really? Savor the moment, Alexi.
As for me, despite the fears of one my co-workers, I was not harassed in the slightest. The very nice gay couple next to me made a compelling case for making the Giants my National League team and the woman in front of me was “born and raised a Twins fan” and claimed that despite her Giants hat tonight, she’d be wearing a Twins jersey tomorrow. She seconded the motion that I should cheer for the Giants when it’s not an interleague game against the Twins.
I may have to consider the offer…
Edit: In what might be the best example of how crazy baseball stats can be, tonight was only the third time a pitcher gave up 8 runs on 25 pitches or less.