A's at Twins: Sweep out the Ugly Shoes

Recap:
Friday -- A's 3 - Twins 4
Saturday -- A's 0 - Twins 2
Sunday -- A's 2 - Twins 4

Record: 68-50, 3 games ahead

Well, isn't that nice. A very groovy sweep, with the added bonus of gaining some ground in the division (thanks Tigers!). I like it a lot!

I've gotta admit, I didn't catch much of Friday's or Saturday's games. (I'm really really bummed that I missed Duensing's gem -- I was hanging out with friends who wanted to watch the Vikings preseason game. I know, I know, but they're great friends anyway.)

So, since I went to Sunday's game, I'll talk about that. I had a wonderful time.

• Beautiful day for baseball. After the recent hot and humid streak Minnesota's been having, it was an absolutely glorious day. It was maybe a bit breezy, but not too chilly.
  
  
  
• Ok, I know I'm a grown woman. Heck, even my kids are grown. But I bought myself a package of Twins Silly Bandz.

(If you don't know what Silly Bandz are, don't worry about it. You'll find out soon enough.)
• Remember the breeze? Well, it's a lot swirlier inside the ballpark. To which, my husband proclaims "it's too windy, there's no way anyone's hitting a homerun today." This comes into play later.
• The 9-year-old girl who sung the National Anthem was fantastic. 
• Twingo! I've never done Twingo -- I don't know why; it just never happened. But I quickly learn that it's kind of hard...I mean how often does one see CI, K-PB, or 7-4 anyway? This also comes into play later.
• I want to hug Jason Repko. Ain't no way Delmon Young makes those catches.
• About the fifth inning or so, I find myself shushing guys around me for saying words that rhyme with "bo bitter." Yes, I'm superstitious. 
• About the same time, I notice Kevin Slowey is getting into some 3-ball counts, but he's been also getting a lot of called third strikes. 
• My son seems to have every play that happens printed on his Twingo card. And when Slowey plunked Mark Ellis, he won. He got a t-shirt.

(He thought it was lame, so he gave it to me.)
• Remember the wind and what my husband said about it? Yeah, well Jim Thome went ahead and proved him wrong...right after I told my mom "Jim Thome is horrible against lefties." I guess he showed us, huh? It was awesome that the guy who caught that hot tater was wearing a Thome shirt.
• And then the booing...Kevin Slowey had pitched 7 innings of no-hit baseball, and Gardy took him out and went with Rauch to start the eighth. Many fans were not happy about it. And said so. I agree with Gardy's decision -- Kev just missed a start with elbow soreness; there's no need to re-sore it. Also, he was beginning to pitch erratically and leave some pitches up; he was getting outs by sheer luck. When he hit Ellis, it was pretty clear he was done. Gardy made the right choice. I don't really blame the fans for booing, though. It was turning out to be a special game, and we wanted it to stay that way. It's not very often that an average fan gets to see a no-hitter, and we were mad that it wasn't going to happen this time. Gardy may have made the right decision, but it doesn't mean we have to like it. For what's it's worth, I didn't boo. I don't ever boo (well, that's not exactly true; I've been know to boo an umpire or two). But I did groan when I saw Rauch come out. I would've rather seen Guerrier or Crain.
• Rauch rewarded my groaning by giving up two doubles, and both those runners scored. So much for that. Crain makes it a little interesting by throwing a wild pitch, then getting one of those famous 6-5-4-6 fielders' choices. But then he gets one of those Slowey-esque called third strikes.
• This was my first chance seeing Matt Capps live. Single. Double-play. Ground-out. I'll take it.
• If there was any negative about this game, it was that the Twins left 12 (twelve!) men on base. Not good. Not good at all. But, as long as they win...