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September 22, 2010Last night in Minnesota reminded me so much of the mid to late 90’s in Cleveland. The sad sack Indians rolled into town battling to stay out of the AL Central cellar, while the Twins were on the verge of another division title. Again, we’ve seen this bit in reverse 10-15 years ago. The bottom feeders come in, play tough for a little, and then succumb to the superior talent of the champs in the end.
On this night, there was some “Target Field Magic.”
Fausto Carmona handed a 4-2 lead to the bullpen with two outs in sixth. It looked as though they would hold it. Rafael Perez got the final out of the sixth via groundout from Nick Punto. He put two on in the seventh and with two out and the right-handed Michael Cuddyer coming up, Manager Manny Acta gave a shot to a guy I’ve wanted to see in this spot all year – Justin Masterson.
“We don’t have a setup man, per se, here,” Acta explained. “We’re matching up all the time. You guys (media) have been crying all season for Masterson to pitch out of the ‘pen, and he did.”
The move looked good in the seventh, as Masterson retired Cuddyer on a fielder’s choice to short. Still nursing the 4-2 lead in the eighth, Masterson came out as the bridge to closer Chris Perez.
Jim Thome, who hit his 25th homer earlier in the game, hit a single to left past the shifted infield to start the inning. Delmon Young followed by hitting a liner towards Michael Brantley in center. Brantley, playing the dreaded no-doubles defense made a bad break on the ball and then tried to make a diving catch. The dive was ill-advised and instead of keeping the ball in front of him and minimizing the damage, the ball bounced off his chest for a double, scoring pinch runner Trevor Plouffe.
“I was too aggressive,” Brantley said. “I can’t leave my feet in that situation. I should have played it on a hop, period. I cost my team, and I take full responsibility for my actions.”
Now the tying run was at second with nobody out. Danny Valencia took a two strike pitch the other way to right for a single, Young stopped at third. On the replay you could see Masterson clearly missed his spot. Lou Marson set up outside and the pitch came right into Valencia’s wheel house. After Punto flew out to shallow right for the first out, pinch hitter Jose Morales stepped to the plate. Acta summoned lefty Tony Sipp.
Morales would hit a deep fly to right. Shin-Soo Choo, with his rocket arm, attempted to gun out Young at the plate, but over-threw his cutoff man, allowing Valencia, the lead run, to move into scoring position with two out. Now with the score tied, Denard Span singled home Valencia, putting the Twins ahead 5-4. Pouring salt in the wound was Orlando Hudson, who doubled to the gap in right-center, easily scoring Span. Three Matt Capps outs later, and the Twins were AL Central champs for the sixth time in nine years, something only the Indians have accomplished in the three-division era.
That’s “Target Field Magic.”
Masterson’s first relief experiment was not exactly what we had all hoped for. He certainly wasn’t helped by his defense – the botch by Brantley and Choo missing the cutoff man (even though that was with Sipp on the mound) – but missing his spot against Valencia was huge.Things just snowballed from there for the Twins.
“When you’re on the other side (in games like this), it seems like somehow, some way things lineup for you,” said Masterson. “No matter what the other teams does, this happens, which leads to that and someone pulls something out of his bag and you go, ‘Where the heck did that come from?'”
It was just a reminder of how good the Indians had it in the 90’s. Seemingly every night that was us, coming from behind with a new hero each time. Now, the Indians are the tree, and the Twins are the dog.
“They’re a good team,” Acta said about the Twins. “It’s not that they win when they have to win. They just win more than any other team in our division because they’re good. They’re deep and they’re good.”
After a long night of partying, you can bet the Twins will be sitting many regulars for the getaway day afternoon start. Carlos Carrasco (1-0, 2.70 ERA) attempts to avoid the sweep for the Tribe. Opposing him will be Nick Blackburn (9-10, 5.43 ERA).
(AP Photo/Jim Mone)
2 Comments
well, so there goes a good shot for Carmona to get back to .500 on the season. if he gets 2 more starts, he now needs to win both.