Orioles at Twins -- It All Evens Out

Recap:

Thursday --  Orioles 2 - Twins 0
Saturday 1 -- Orioles 7 - Twins 3
Saturday 2 -- Orioles 1 - Twins 6
Sunday -- Orioles 0 - Twins 6

Twins split series 2-2
Record: 21-11

~~~

So, even though the Twins probably should have won more than just two of these, we all know it could've been much worse. All the bad finally got evened out with some good.

Thursday's was a snore-fest, made even worse by the fact that I was there (in a happy stroke of luck, I was sitting under the canopy really close to the heat lamps, so at least I wasn't uncomfortable). Pavano pitched well, but then the bats forgot to show up -- they must've been afraid of the cold. But, it did mark the television debut of the Target Field Fair Pole Kestrel. Which is more a sad commentary of the state of the game than it is a happy event for the bird. At least the bird got dinner.

Friday's of course was called due to crappy rain-slush-snow-blech. And, no, I still don't want a roof on the ballpark. Why is that when rain or cold hit Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, or anywhere else, no one says a peep about putting a roof on those ball parks? But, lo, if a Minnesota game gets called, all the wimps (and for some reason, the national media) come out of the woodwork and whine about the lousy weather. Get this all you weather-babies: 1) rain-outs are part of baseball; dealing with the weather is, and should be, part of the game; and 2) if there was a retractable roof on Target Field, it would block that lovely cityscape view (I've been to Miller Park -- you have to look straight up to see the sky).

Saturday's first game was another meh. Liriano pitched kind of ishy, but only a little. It was more of a case of the Orioles' hits just finding gaps and holes -- and a little bit (or maybe quite a bit) of defensive sluggishness. Not the best-played game of the year. At least it was over quickly.

But then, between those games, somewhere in the fancy-schmancy clubhouse/workout room/palace, the defense, the bats, and the pitchers woke up and decided to have some fun. They probably also realized that it would be embarrassing to lose any more games.

They carried their newly re-found good attitude to Sunday's game. And Mother Nature celebrated Mother's Day by evening things out with the weather. It was a lovely day at the park, and a lovely performance by the Twins. It was made extra-special because I got to spend the day with my mom (Hi Mom!), my hubby (Hi Hon!), and my kids (Hi Guys!). It was a perfect day. And it certainly made up for the mind-numbing game on Thursday.

See? It all evened out.

~~~

Speaking of perfect days and things evening out...

I'd like to buy a beer for...


Dallas Braden

If complete games are hot, and complete game shut-outs are hotter, ... etc., perfect games are...well, perfection. It's the single most beautiful thing a baseball player can do. It's baseball rapture. It's a gift directly from the baseball gods. And the scene of him and his grandmother embracing after the game brought me to sniffles.

This particular performance evened out the disturbance in the baseball karma that occurred when A-Rod ran across Braden's pitching mound a few weeks ago -- a violation of baseball's unwritten rules. When Braden protested in the papers, the ever-egotistical Yankee players rallied and replied with comments questioning his importance to the game (and thereby solidifying their own self-important pompousness). Well, who's important now?

And the evening goes a little bit the other way, too. Braden went too far with his grievances with A-Rod. So this defeat of the Rays winds up helping the Yankees.

This does make me feel bad for the Rays, though. They were also the victims of Mark Buehrle's perfect game last season. That's just not fair. Hopefully this wrinkle gets evened out sometime soon.

Oh, and by the way...I know this is the third beer I've awarded in a week, but this is an anomaly. This is really meant to be for special occasions. If this keeps up, I'll drain my virtual beer budget in a hurry.