Wednesday,
September 22, 2010
Achieving Junior Ortiz Status!
Twins Win AL Central Title!!
It was a great night to be a Twins fan. The game didn’t start out well. Fausto
Carmona again did a great job of controlling the Twins offense. But the
Twins made him throw a lot of pitches, and after he left the game, the Twins
offense showed up. In a big bottom of the 8th inning, the Twins got
big hits from Delmon Young, Danny Valencia, Denard Span
and Orlando Hudson. They got a sacrifice fly from Jose Morales as
a pinch hitter for Drew Butera, who was 2-3 in the game. The
Twins won 6-4. Scott Baker returned and pitched five solid innings. Jon
Rauch did a nice job in relief. Matt Capps shut the door to save a
win for Glen Perkins.
It was a great day for the Twins. Joe Mauer’s MRI on his knee
reveals some inflammation but no concerns. Jason Kubel returned to the
lineup. Ron Gardenhire won his 800th career game as the Twins
manager. Jim Thome is on a very cool Sports Illustrated cover this week,
and he delivered his 25th home run of the season. The Yankees won,
but the Twins win meant that they remained just one game behind in the race for
best overall record. The Twins are now 1.5 games ahead of the Rays in that
race.
By about 10:15, the Twins clinched a tie with the White Sox in the AL
Central with nine games to go. In order to clinch the division title outright,
the Twins needed a little more help from the Oakland A’s. Trevor Cahill
provided it. The A’s righty gave up just two runs. The A’s bats were able to score
four early runs off of Mark Buehrle. They added three more later in the
game, and Craig Breslow got Paul Konerko to ground out for the
final out of a 7-3 A’s win.
That’s right Twins fans. As I have been posting pictures of players with the
uniform number of current and former Twins players corresponding with the Twins
Magic Number, the whole time, the goal was to be able to announce that the
Magic Number would correspond with…
There you have it… a photo/card of Junior Ortiz, the only player
in Twins history to wear the number Zero. He wore that number for the Twins in
1990 and 1991. Is there any irony that 1991 was the Twins last World Series
championship? The Twins magic number is now zero, meaning that even if the
Twins lost the rest of their games and the White Sox won the rest of their
games, the Twins would still win the division.
Any
thoughts on the season, the game, or looking forward. No matter what you think
of Gardy, the coaching staff, some of the players, the GM, etc., tonight should
be all about giving the Minnesota Twins team and organization the respect that
it deserves. They have a ton of talent that have come together thanks to Gardy
and Bill Smith, and they have the
second best record in all of baseball. This team is fun to watch, and frankly,
they are really good. Feel free to leave
your questions and comments here.