Wednesday, May
13, 2009
Notes from the
Press Box
For the first time, I had the
opportunity to sit in the press box of the Metrodome.
No. No. I wasn’t in the front rows with Phil Miller and Joe Christensen
and Kelly Thesier, but it was still
the press box. What a view of the game. The interesting thing is that I’m
sitting here doing the exact same thing I would do while watching the game at
home. I’m at the computer, checking out minor league box scores, reading some
blogs, checking out my Facebook. But still, this is
so cool. I’m sitting with The Twins Geek, and in the vicinity of Phil
Mackey and Doogie Wolfson. I had a
polish, and I almost spilled mustard on my sweater. Maybe I could be the next Sid Hartman!!
Pregame – After figuring out
where and when I needed to sell books, The Twins Geek and I went and got our press
passes. I met him down on the field during Twins batting practice during which
time Ron Gardenhire
held his pre-game press conference. That was interesting. Everyone just
congregated. A few asked questions. It went just over five minutes. Joe Mauer and
Justin Morneau
were signing autographs for a small group of kids who were brought to the field
to watch BP and meet players. Delmon Young was
launching balls into the left field bleachers. Unfortunately, I had to get back
out to the plaza and sell books.
The weather, well, it didn’t
cooperate. There was a continuous wind, sometimes gusty. There were frequent
sprinkles with occasional light rain. Not exactly conducive
for people to just hang out on the plaza. I sold all of zero books. But
I am happy that several of you stopped by to say hi and talk about the Twins.
That was fun. I will be doing the same thing on Wednesday night on the plaza, so
again, if you are going to the game, stop by and say hi… and if you want, grab
a book. Just $10!
Anyway, I got into the Herb Carneal
Press Box just as the top of the 1st inning completed. Here are some
notes as I watched the Twins beat the Tigers 6-2:
TWINS IN-GAME NOTES
1st Inning – Galarragga sure doesn’t look to be throwing hard. Span
lined out to RF. Tolbert singles. Mauer has a long,
deep fly ball to left that the fielder jumped a little to catch. Morneau drilled a ball to the warning track in CF. These guys are going to crush him if this keeps up!
2nd inning – Cuddyer takes a walk before Joe Crede drills a shot well into the
left field bleachers.
3rd
inning – Remember that Mauer ball that Clete Thomas caught over the fence in left? Well, this time, Mauer hit
it a little lower and a little harder. Thomas almost had another home run
robbing play, but he couldn’t quite get to it. The press box TV shows that Thomas
was in nearly the same exact spot.
4th Inning – Slowey worked into a little trouble. He gave up hits to the
first two hitters, the second, a controversial “hit”
on a bounding ball up the middle. Matt
Tolbert was on his way to the base because the runner was attempting a
steal. He ended up going a few steps to the SS side of the bag and the ball
bounced off his glove, right in front of a waiting Nick Punto. But, Slowey
coaxed two lazy fly balls to right field, and a ground ball to get out of the inning.
5th Inning - Top of the inning, with one out, Clete Thomas singles to left to put two on
with one out and Miguel Cabrera at
bat. The Twins Geek points out that
this is suddenly a big at bat. I concur. A home run makes it 4-3 Twins. On the
first pitch, Cabrera hits a hard ground ball up the middle. Tolbert dives,
catches it, flips to Nick Punto who relayed the ball to 1B for a double play,
ending the inning. I almost clap, a cardinal sin in the press box, but I catch
myself. Phil Mackey
points out the Alexi Casilla
doesn’t get to that ball. I concur.
After striking out both Denard Span and Matt Tolbert, Gallarraga wisely walked Joe Mauer. He
then got a kick-save and a beauty from Miguel
Cabrera on a hard-hit one-hopper off the bat of Justin Morneau.
6th Inning – Slowey has thrown five shutout innings to this point, but
he has been hit a little and living on the edge. A nice 1-2-3 inning would be
great. Jeff Larish
hits a 1-2 fasetball on the outside corner over the
left field fence to leadoff the inning. But he
recovered to get two ground outs back to the mound and an easy fly ball to left
field.
With Runners on second and
third, Delmon Young was jammed badly on a inside fastball and grounded to SS. Should have been a
double play, but a bad throw on the relay went into the Tigers’ dugout. Jason Kubel
(who walked to lead off the inning) scored on the play and Young ended up at
2B. Very nice to get that run back. (By the way, Kevin Slowey is at 98 pitches, and the
bullpen is not active.) A Nick Punto
walk ends the night for Galarraga with Ryan Perry entering the game. (Jesse Crain is now warming up. This makes
sense as the inning is now getting quite long, not that that is a bad thing
from the Twins’ perspective.) Span strikes out on a pitch on the inner part of
the plate. He spends a little time talking to the umpire, apparently disagreeing
with the call.
7th inning – Jesse Crain enters the game, and when
he is announced, I hear a spattering of boos. Jose Mijares is already warming up.
Nine-hitter Ramon Santiago homers on
a 3-2 fastball right down the middle. The crowd boos a little, OK a lot, more. I
swear I hear Nick Nelson yelling obscenities
from the upper deck. He’s clearly not the only one. The press box television
shows Gardy, mouthing some words, especially after
the walk to Crain. Gardy goes to get Crain. Crain
leaves to more boos. Just four of his 11 pitchers went
for strikes. Mijares reaches the mound and Matt Guerrier
is already warming up. Placido Polanco
flies up to Span in center. Mijares struck out lefty Clete Thomas on three tough pitches. Miguel Cabrera comes up at a very important
time at again. Ron Coomer
is looking pretty snazzy, eating some popcorn. Mijares
breaks Cabrera’s bat, and he pops up to Punto in deep
short.
Ryan Perry throws hard. The
radar in the Metrodome shows he’s hitting 95-97.
After he strikes out Matt Tolbert, Mauer easily drills a line drive into left field for a hit.
All I think it, “Seriously, it isn’t that easy, is it??” After a wild pitch,
the Tigers walk Justin Morneau to bring up Jason Kubel. Kubel
strikes out. Cuddyer grounds out weakly 2B.
8th inning – Mijares gets Clete Thomas to
fly out weakly to Carlos Gomez who
is now playing in CF, with Denard Span
moving over to LF. Matt Guerrier enters the game and got Magglio Ordonez to ground out to Joe
Crede at 3B and then froze Brandon Inge to end the inning with a
strikeout.
Ryan Perry is still in the
game. He strikes out Joe Crede. Then Carlos
Gomez came to bat and worked a walk. He stole second and advanced to third
on a ground ball back to the pitcher. Denard Span then
slapped a single to left field to score Gomez. That ended the night for Ryan Perry as Brandon Lyon came into
the game. On a 2-1 pitch, Span easily stole second base. He had taken three
steps before Lyon threw the ball. On the next pitch, he walked Tolbert. But
with Joe Mauer
at the plate, Span was thrown out trying to steal 3B. Mauer
kind of stared down at Span when he was called out, BUT Matt Tolbert was stealing too, which means that the double steal
was called from the dugout. Inexplicable. The other
strange thing is that Span again got a huge jump but was still thrown out.
9th inning – It isn’t
a save situation any longer, but Joe
Nathan is still brought in for the ninth. Josh Anderson flew out to CF on the first pitch. Ramon Santiago grounded between the
pitcher’s mound and 1B. Justin Morneau fielded the ball and flipped it to Nathan for
the out, but Nathan was stepped on and hobbled for a minute before stepping to
the mound. Some guy right in front of the press box started clapping, and when
everyone stood for the final out, he took great pride in having started the
ovation. Comical! Nathan came back to
strike out Curtis Granderson
to end the game.
The game finished. Many media
members went down to the clubhouse for some postgame reaction. I’m writing
this. Bert Blyleven and Ron Coomer
are down on the field doing their post game tutorial. Moments later, many of the
lights over the field are off. Brendan
Harris is doing sprint after sprint along the warning track. I’m told he
does that a lot, runs constantly. Bert
Blyleven comes back up through the press box. Some of the media members
come back. We have a long chat with the official scorer about the Tolbert play.
Harris is still running.
I must now go home and get some
sleep. Another long day tomorrow. Again, I will be
selling books on the Metrodome’s plaza from about
5:30 until 7:00. I am then going to host a live chat from the chat room which I
hope to start about 7:15 on Wednesday night. So, be sure to tune in to that.
To sign up for a
reminder, or to ‘watch’ the live chat, Click Here.
Please be sure to leave
me your thoughts.
MINOR LEAGUE REPORT
Tuesday -
SethSpeaks.net Hitter of the Day – Luke Hughes, Rochester Red Wings - Whit Robbins, New
Britain Rockcats
Tuesday -
SethSpeaks.net Pitcher of the Day – Reid Santos, Rochester Red Wings – Spencer Steedley, Ft. Myers Miracle – Joe Testa,
Beloit Snappers
ROCHESTER REPORT
Tuesday –Rochester 5, Indianapolis 6 – Down four runs going into the bottom of the 8th, Trevor Plouffe knocked
in two that inning. Then in the bottom of the ninth, down two, with two outs
and two on, Luke Hughes connected
for a two-run two-baggers to tie the game at five. Justin Huber then singled in Hughes and the Red Wings had their comeback.
Hughes led the way going 3-5 with his fifth doubles, second triple and three
RBI. Alexi Casilla
was also 3-5. (He is now hitting .455)
Justin Huber was 3-5 with that Game-Winning RBI. Trevor Plouffe went 2-3 with a walk, his
fifth double and two RBI. Philip Humber starting
and gave up five runs on six hits and two walks in 4.1 innings. Reid Santos looked good with 3.2
shutout innings. He struck out three. Armando
Gabino worked a perfect ninth inning and is
credited with the win.
ROCKCAT RECAP
Tuesday - New Britain 2, Connecticut 4 – Whit Robbins
had a great day at the plate. He went 3-3 with a walk and his fourth home run
which drove in both of the Rockcats runs. Danny Valencia and Juan Portes each hit a double. Matt Fox got the start on the mound. He gave up four runs on eight
hits. He walked one and struck out five in the loss. Rob Delaney came in and got the team out of the sixth inning, as
well as pitched a perfect seventh. He started the 8th and gave up a
hit and a walk, getting just one out, before Anthony Slama came in to get the final
five outs.
MIRACLE MEMOS
Tuesday –Ft. Myers 2, Sarasota 11 – Deolis Guerra’s line won’t look good. He gave
up six runs on eight hits and two walks in 5.2 innings. He struck out seven.
However, through five innings, he had given up just two runs and was pitching
quite well. Spencer Steedley
came in and struck out three in 2.1 shutout innings. Kyle Waldrop started the ninth. He got two outs, but he gave up
five runs on five hits and a walk. Henry
Arias came in and struckout the lone batter he
faced. Evan Bigley
got the start in LF hours after flying in to Ft. Myers from Beloit (or wherever
it is players from Beloit fly out of). He stepped off the plane and got hits in
his first two at bats. (2-4 on the game) Chris
Cates went 2-2 with a walk. Mark Dolenc was in the leadoff position and went 2-4. Ben Revere’s injured knee appears to be
better and he is expected to be back in the lineup by Friday. UPDATE – Bigley
flew out of Chicago and got to the ball park at 5:30 to see his name in the
starting lineup.
SNAPPERS SNIPPETS
Tuesday – Beloit 3, Clinton 2 – Dan Osterbrook finally got that elusive first win of his
2009 season. The lefty went the first six innings. He gave up two runs on six
hits. He walked none and struck out six. Dan
Berlind worked a scoreless seventh inning. Then Joe Testa
continued to dominate with four strikeouts in two scoreless innings for his
second save.
Please feel free to Send me an e-mail, or leave
your questions or comments here.