While the real story of this game is the return of Brad “My arm didn’t fall off” Radke and his five innings of 3 hit ball despite a broken shoulder, I’ll just direct you to two other blogs if you’re interested in that. Although it is worth mentioning that Bradke’s ability to play through the pain all season is right up there with Curt Schilling’s bloody sock in the 2004 World Series.
The second story of tonight’s game? With the Tigers loss earlier in the day, the Twins are now tied for first in the AL Central. This is the first time they’ve been in first place for more than five hours since 2005 — maybe even 2004. But I don’t particularly want to cover that either. Especially since I tend to agree with the pundits who say that the Twins best chance to get to the World Series is to face the Yankees in a five game ALDS instead of a seven game ALCS. (And all of the pundits are in agreement that the Yanks are the AL team to beat right now, and that the Twins have the best chance of being the ones to beat them.)
No, what I want to figure out is if the score of this game is what it should be.
Here’s what happened… While Bradke was pitching his arm off (not literally, though it was in question for awhile), the Twins generated no offense until Joe “Mr. St. Paul” Mauer’s homer in the ninth to tie it up and send the game to extra innings. In the bottom of the tenth, the Twins manage to load the bases with one out and Jason “Not the fake president” Bartlett comes up to bat. Bartlett hits the ball to deep center field and it bounces over the fence for a ground rule double.
Under normal circumstances, each runner advances two bases on a ground rule double, meaning that both Morneau at third and Ford at second would score and the Twins would get two runs out of the deal. However, this is the bottom of the last inning. Once the winning run scores, the game is over, so in this case, only Morneau scores and Bartlett is only credited with a single.
Except, and here’s where it gets tricky, if Bartlett had hit a homerun instead of a GRD, all four runs would have been allowed to score. Since a GRD also has an automatic awarding of bases with the ball gone out of play, why aren’t the two runs allowed to score much in the same way? So I’ve consulted the rules…

4.11(c) If the home team scores the winning run in its half of the ninth inning (or its half of an extra inning after a tie), the game ends immediately when the winning run is scored. EXCEPTION: If the last batter in a game hits a home run out of the playing field, the batter-runner and all runners on base are permitted to score, in accordance with the base-running rules, and the game ends when the batter-runner touches home plate.

… and it turns out, the rules don’t actually help answer the question at hand, except to specifically state that the exception holds for homeruns only. I really think the rulebook should be amended here to add the exception for GRDs. Because at the end of the day, Bartlett hit a double, not a single, and the scorebook should reflect that.

Good things that happened tonight in baseball land:

• The Twins won and the White Sox lost, shrinking the Twins magic number to zero. 0. A goose egg. Playoffs, here we (and by we, I mean they) come!
• My future husband, Joe Mauer, went 2 for 3, upping his batting average to the still-AL-leading .349.
• Torii Hunter hit his 30th homerun of the season. Justin Morneau hit his 34th. This marks the first time since 1987 that multiple Twins had 30 homer seasons. (And incidently, no Twin has had 30 homers since then.) Do you know what else happened in 1987? The Twins beat the Tigers in the ALCS and went on to win the World Series. I sense good things for this post season. Good things.

Oh, and the Red Sox lost to Toronto, 5-0.

I’m posting this before the game ends so that I can relish the fact that the Twins are atop the Central Division right now. Especially because it doesn’t look like it’s going to stay that way. Johan “Unbeatable in the Second Half of the Season” Santana had an uncharacteristic blow up on the mound in the second inning. It sort of made me queasy when he bobbled that bunt. And then there was Papi…
Oh man, I can stop cheering for the Sox, but I can’t stop cheering for David Ortiz. His swing is just so sweet. He’s like a big teddy bear that hits homeruns. And I’d like you all to note that I was a fan of his long before he was the Boston favorite and MVP hopeful that he is now — I was a fan of his when he was a Twin. (And let’s not rip on Terry Ryan for “letting him go.” That was in fact a strategic favor to me as I moved to Boston and needed some Twins to come with me.) But he’s Boston’s now… all-time Red Sox single season homerun leader with 52 and counting. And he doesn’t share that title with anyone.

Some open letters to my two favorite baseball teams…
Dear Red Sox,
I’m sorry you were eliminated from the AL East title today. Even though we’re still on a break, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt to know that the Yankees are going to be in the playoffs (again) instead of you. But Papi, congrats on number 50… if I wasn’t so opposed to DHs winning the MVP, I’d vote for you.
Rhode

Dear Twins,
You boys make me so happy. For about an hour tonight, you were tied for the Central Division lead and I was actually rooting for the Bad Sox in Chicago so that you could have that lead out right. But instead, you’ll have to settle for shrinking the Wild Card magic number to 6. And Justin Morneau, you do get my MVP vote — because you play defense and you have 125 RBI with a .325 batting average.
Rhode
PS – Don’t worry about my still being friendly with the Good Sox — you’ll always be my true love.

Lisa mentioned seeing this happen, but I never got to see it myself. Now with the wonders of youtube… Baby fan of the game pukes on Mom.
Edit: More Twins videos on youtube… I’m not ashamed to admit that this one made me tear up a little, cheesy though it may be. It’s especially recommended for my dad. Non-Twins fans probably won’t be as touched.

My second game this weekend played out similarly to the first. The Indians scored quickly in the first and the Twins starting pitcher, this time Scott Baker, looked unsteady until the second, when he mowed the opposition down 1-2-3 and proceeded to pitch superbly for six innings, followed by some excellent bullpen relief. And like yesterday, the Twins quickly got the first run back on a Torii Hunter hit in second.
No, wait. It wasn’t a hit, it was an E-3 that the Twins later capitalized on. Defense was the name of today’s game and the Twins knew how to play it and the Indians didn’t. Cleveland made a total of three errors that cost them at least one, if not two or three Twins runs. In the meantime, the Twins made five double plays (one on an incredible fielding play by Nick Punto at third), which saved who knows how many Indians runs.
All in all, an exciting weekend for me. Jacob’s Field gets two thumbs up as a stadium, the Crowne Plaza hotel gets two thumbs up for damn comfortable beds, and the Twins get two thumbs and two big toes up for winning two games. There will be pictures… eventually.

Tonight was the first of my planned two games in Cleveland to catch the Twins take on the Tribe. My housemate, Patty, joined me for the three hour drive this afternoon and the subsequent game and current night’s stay at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Cleveland.* It was 80’s night at Jacob’s Field, and in honor of that event, all of the fans were given free Cleveland Indians Rubik’s Cubes. I solved mine quickly (okay, fine, they came solved… but I messed it up and retraced my steps quickly).
After Patty checked out the pro shop and picked up a jersey for her boyfriend, a German who roots for the Indians because he loved the movie Major League, we took our seats in the very back row of the bleachers. I met a guy from Cleveland earlier in the summer who heard of my baseball travels and told me that I had to get to Jacob’s Field, because “there’s not a bad seat in the house.” Well, I can now at least vouch that the half-off-in-September bleacher seats have a good view of the field, though they lose a few points for having no view of the Jumbotron.
The game started out looking bleak for the Twins, with the Indians scoring quickly in the first off of a pair of hits and a fielder’s choice. Carlos Silva looked a little uneasy on the mound and I was a little nervous about the Twins’ chances. Surprisingly, the fans weren’t all that excited, even when their team was ahead. I’d forgotten how much lower the energy in a stadium can be when the team isn’t contending for a playoff spot. I was impressed with the guy next to me, however, when he proceeded to name the line-up of both the ’87 and ’91 World Champion Twins, despite the fact that he was a lifelong Indians fan.
And speaking of the Twins, while they were down early, they certainly weren’t out. They got the initial run back in the third on a pair of singles of their own, followed by a pair of sacrifices from Little Nicky Punto and Mike “Joe Mauer who?” Redman to score Jason “The Piranha” Bartlett. Torii “Gold Glove” Hunter hit a homerun in the fourth to put the Twins ahead by one, and the boys from Minnesota grabbed an insurance run in the fifth off a Redman double. In the meantime, my worries about Silva’s pitching were quickly allayed as he pitched another six solid innings, giving up only three more hits and no runs, including a five pitch seventh that was over before you could blink.
Redman earned himself another RBI in the top of the ninth, proving that the Twins can depend on their catcher for offense even when Mauer isn’t in the game. (Have I mentioned that Redman has signed my scorebook? Well, he has and tonight I’m pretty proud of that.) Joe “Even better than Rivera” Nathan came in in the bottom of the ninth and the stadium began to slowly empty, even before he sent the Indians down 1-2-3 to earn his 33rd save of the season.

* – Priceline is pretty awesome for setting your own hotel rate, and I don’t mind giving them free advertising. This is the same line of hotel I stayed at in San Francisco back in April, with the sleep CD and ridiculously comfortable beds, not to mention excellent location (walking distance to Jacob’s Field). The price? $60 a night, split between us.

Well, Johan Santana pitches 7 scoreless, 2 hit innings, Joe Mauer goes two for three with two doubles and two RBI, and the Twins clobber the Tigers to come within two games of the Central Division lead and to go up a game and half over the White Sox (who lost to Cleveland today) for the Wild Card lead. And since I’m in the Detroit area, you’d think that I’d get to watch this game, right?
Wrong.
I really hate football. And professional poker. And the “Detroit Sports Report,” which FSN decided to air instead of, you know, actual Detroit sports.
Watching the Yahoo! GameChannel means I have no chance of watching the announcer drop the f-bomb — twice. (Go watch it, even if you don’t like baseball… the look on Blyleven’s face after he realizes he was live is priceless.)