Baseball at it’s best

It doesn’t get any better than this.  162 games per team in the regular baseball season, yet the AL Central division not only came down to one game, but one inning to decide.  And I don’t even mean the 9th!  Just goes to show you how closely matched the Twins and Tigers were.  This game was a nail biter for any fan, even if you have no loyalty to either team.   Scroll to the bottom if you don’t want my play by play but I was practicing my sportscasting skills during the game.  Though I don’t have any absurd ESPN facts like the last time a baseball player with the initials OC hit a home run on a ball that was meant for an intentional walk or something like that. 

Detroit tied the game 4-4 in the eighth and while the 9th was dramatic, neither team could clinch it.  Tigers start the 10th and Crain throws a pitch that barely grazes the pants leg of Huff.  Kelly is put in as a pinch runner and Brandon Inge hit a deep double to left, scoring the speedy Kelly.  Tigers up 5-4, but it got even more exciting!  Bottom of the tenth, Cuddyer hit a fly ball to Raburn, who must have been thinking about making a crazy ESPN top 10 play instead of watching the ball.  At this point in a game with so much riding on it, stay in front of the ball and hold the batter to a single!  Cuddyer chugged around the bases to third and could have had an in the park home run had he not been carrying a beer gut any aficionado would be proud of.  But no matter, a couple of batters later (runners now at the corners and 1 out) and Tolbert dribbles one up the middle that any decent minor league player should have been able to turn two on.  Somehow, elementary baseball skills were no longer possessed by anybody on the field, and both middle infielders played a game of rock, paper, scissors while watching the ball pass by.  Yep, you guessed it- Cuddyer scores and we have another tied game! Punto lined to Rayburn, who this time caught the ball and threw it home just in time to get the tagging Casilla out.  Into the 11th!

No runs in the eleventh.  12th- Cabrera walks and Kelly advances safely to second after Young throws to third.  Raburn is walked intentionally to load up the bases and give the Twins a chance at turning two, though risking an outfield hit that would most likely score two…  Mauer smothers a ball in the dirt to save the passed ball.  A dribbler to Punto leaves no time for two and he gets the force at home.  Keppel managed to sneak three strikes past Laird and we go into the bottom of the 12th.  Gomez hits the hole past a diving Inge, who can only go to first to get Cuddyer out on the next play.  Gomez to second.  Casilla singles to right and Gomez scores.  Twins win it, taking 17 of the last 21 games to get this far, and probably already boarding a plane to face the Yankees tomorrow.

This game reminds me of the Rockies/Padres matchup in the division playoffs two years ago, and I obviously remember how that turned out…  But at least this game wasn’t giving me a heart attack!

World Series matchup?  I think the Dodgers don’t have a chance as long as Señor Dreads can’t get his offense up and the Cardinals will play the Phillies.  Boston will probably squeek by the Angels and as much as it pains me to say it, they’ll play the Yanks for the AL title, unless the Twins somehow don’t party much tonight and are rested up enough to ride this momentum train, though 0-7 against the Yankees this year tells me their chances aren’t that great.  Who would I *like* to see in the World Series?  Angels (go SoCal!) and Cardinals (Pujols is the man).  What game would be fun to watch the bad blood?  Dodgers and Yankees of course.