That’s not a typo… last night the Rangers beat up on the Twins with 20 runs.  The box score for the first 5 innings is the same as the zip code for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida: 3-3-3-5-4.

But if there is to be a silver lining in a game like that, it’s that in the 8th inning, the Twins held the Rangers scoreless under the pitching prowess of Michael Cuddyer.  Now, for those who aren’t Twins fans, you might not get why that is impressive.  This was Cuddyer’s Major League pitching debut — actually, I think it was his professional pitching debut.  While he did load the bases including a walk, he managed to get out of the inning with a 0.00 ERA. His velocity was clocked at 87 MPH, which isn’t half bad. I choose to believe that he was most throwing his own style of pitch, a relative of the cutter called the Cudder (get it?).

Except he’s not actually a pitcher. This season he’s mostly been filling in at first base for the injured Justin Morneau, but he’s nominally the right fielder.  At various points in his Twins career, he’s also played left field, center field, third base, and second base.  After last nights performance, he’s only missing short stop and catcher for the career cycle.

This brings me to a proposition… if the Twins are still languishing near the bottom of the division come September, Cuddyer should pull a Cesar Tovar and play all nine positions in the same game.  In fact, if they’re still languishing on August 26, he should do it… because I have tickets to that game.