A Few Holiday Weekend Quick Notes

I hope you had a wonderful long Independence Day weekend. I sure did; it couldn't have been more perfect. I went to Friday's game, which was a lot of fun (even the rain delay was interesting). Then I spent the rest of the weekend at the lake where the weather was perfect. Boating, eating, resting, and a little drinking. Very nice. The only wrinkle was when Matt Capps vomited all over the Twins' 3-run lead on Saturday.

A few notes:

• Friday was my first time in the Metropolitan Club at Target Field. I highly recommend the horseradish encrusted walleye. And the Yukon gold mashed potatoes. And the spinach ravioli with asparagus and portobello cream sauce. And...well, everything.

• The rain that came over Target Field on Friday night was pretty cool. The first storm was quite windy, and the poor grounds crew guys were hustling their tails off to get, and keep, the tarp down. They threw everything heavy they owned on it to keep it from blowing away: bags of fertilizer, the things they use to drag the infield dirt, hoses, carts, whatever. When the second storm blew in, it was actually awesome. There was a distinct edge to the storm, and when the edge came across the bank of lights, the optical illusion made it look like a wave crashing over the park. The crowd ooooh'd and aaaaaah'd over it. This picture doesn't do justice to it:

• The grounds crew is amazing. It was actually pretty interesting watching them work. You know how Target Field brags about capturing and recycling rain water? It's true -- at least the capturing part. There is a drain near third base, and the manipulate the tarp so that all the water goes there. Then they squeegie all the water into the drain. It looked like there may have been other drains along the warning track as well. Fifteen minutes after the rain stopped, it looked from the stands like the field was never wet.

• Jim Thome. Home run. 'Nuf said.

• Even though the rain delay made it a late night, the fireworks after the game were pretty cool.

• How tired are we of Matt Capps? I've never been a huge fan of his, mainly because Joe Nathan is my guy and I'm emotional about the whole closer situation. Earlier in the season, Joe Nathan took himself out of the closer role after only two blown saves. Capps has now blown six saves, and he got bent because Gardy pulled him after giving up two hits on Sunday, a day after blowing a three-run lead. Not cool. The trouble with Capps is that he doesn't have an overpowering fastball and he doesn't really strike out a lot of people. He's a contact pitcher, and contact pitchers can get hit around sometimes. Not really the best closer material, if you ask me. I'm not saying he's a bad pitcher, just not a good closer.

• So, was it a sign of progress when Gardy pulled Capps and put in Glen Perkins on Sunday? Is he going to start using the best pitcher for the situation in the ninth instead of managing to the "Save for the Closer" philosophy? I have my doubts. He's always seemed to me to be a big the-closer-and-only-the-closer-pitches-the-ninth type guy. Is it time he re-visit his idea of closer by Capps/Nathan committee plan he had after spring training? I think so, but again, I can't speak objectively about any of it.

• Here's how I forgot about the whole closer mess -- on the pontoon: 

• I'm so happy that Michael Cuddyer was named to the All-Star Game. I hope he has fun with it. I think it's funny that he doesn't know which glove to bring, so he'll just bring them all.

• Jim Thome. Home run. Again.

• Gardy looked like a genius on Monday by putting Danny Valencia at DH and Danny responds by hitting a three-run home run.

• Complete shut outs are hawt. That makes Brian Duensing all the hawt. Even though he had to do a little "character building" in the first couple innings.

Well, back to work.... What a great weekend.

Scratching and Clawing

It was great weekend overall, but it was made better by the Twins taking the series from the Tigers. And by doing so, they gained a little ground on Detroit, and re-took second place in the division. (Did you notice that the Evil Ugly White Sox snuck up and held second place for a couple days there?)

Recap:
Friday: Twins 9 - Tigers 11 (16 innings!)
Saturday: Twins 4 - Tigers 2
Sunday: Twins 6 - Tigers 2

I spent the weekend with the whole family at the lake. It was a fantastic weekend -- we went out on the boat waterskiing and tubing; we got sunburned; we ate and ate and ate; we made red, white, and blue slushies for the kids; we made some slushies for the grown-ups too; and when we wanted to relax a little, we watched baseball.

On Friday evening, it was raining a little, so we gathered around the TV to watch a recording of a play my niece was in. We started it after the first inning of the Twins game, the play lasted about two hours, afterward I went back to watching the Twins game, and still saw about nine innings of baseball. I was happy when I first turned it on because I thought the Twins were down by six runs but they were tied (my nephew gets text messages, and the last time he showed it to me, the score was 1-7). However, when it finally did end, I was a bit bummed that we lost, but I was grateful it was finally over -- I was tired.

The Saturday game was a good win. It was fun to watch it with my brother-in-law and nephew. It was fun to see Cuddy and Morneu hit homeruns. It was fun to see Nathan save the game.

Blackburn started Sunday's game, and true to form, I missed the first four innings of it. I didn't mind too much; I was out on the boat. I still am trying to watch one his games from first pitch. But it was a great performance. I love it that he has another complete game. Too bad he just can't seem to get that complete-game-shut-out. I'm sure he wants it more than anybody. Keep trying, Nick!

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Congratulations to our All Stars -- Joey, Justin, and Nathanator! All of Twins Territory is very proud of you guys!

Our All-Star Ballot

With the All-Star Game voting period coming to a close soon, j-bro (17) and mini-bro (13) sat down and perused their choices. They pored over stats, examined batting averages, analyzed RBIs, researched runs scored, and deliberated their options. They wrote down notes, made cases, and did their research. They took this very seriously because this is an important decision (personally, I think they were doing it to avoid doing the dishes or putting away their laundry).

So, here is your starting ASG lineup, according to a couple knucklehead kids:

AL:
C - Joe Mauer (MIN)
1B - Justin Morneau (MIN)
2B - Dustin Pedroia (BOS)
3B - Evan Longoria (TB)
SS - Derek Jeter (NYY)
LF - Jason Bay (BOS)
CF - Torii Hunter (LAA)
RF - Ichiro (SEA)
SP - Zack Greinke (KC)

NL:
C - Yadier Molina (STL)
1B - Albert Pujols (STL)
2B - Chase Utley (PHI)
3B - David Wright (NYM)
SS - Hanley Ramirez (FLA)
LF - Ryan Braun (MIL)
CF - Alfonso Soriano (CHC)
RF - Raul Ibanez (PHI)
SP - Tim Lincecum (SF)

Just Stuff

Overall, this was a decent series. Wednesday was a little demoralizing, but they made up for it on Thursday. And because Detroit and Chicago didn't have decent series, we're now firmly in second place only 2.5 games back.

Recap:
Tuesday: Twins 4 - Indians 3
Wednesday: Twins 1 - Indians 10
Thursday: Twins 11 - Indians 3
Twins take series

Now, they're on the road for a bunch. Ok, well I hope today's win pepped the boys up to carry over the trip. And I hope they packed their home-away-from-home goodies I suggested too late last time. Most of all, I hope they stay positive and really believe they can win on the road. Rah.

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So I don't really have a theme to go with today. I do have a bunch of random thoughts rattling around in my brain, so I'm just gonna spill them out in whatever order I think of them. I know it's kind of lame. Ok, it's really lame. But it's all I got.

• I'm glad Scotty had a good outing today. Hopefully he can stay in this good groove.
• I'm not too worried about Swarzak ... yet. He's still learning; he just needs to make some adjustments. I'm looking forward to his next outing to see if he can do it. Wait...will he get a next outing, or will Perk be back by then. I don't know.
• I am, however, too worried about Liriano. He's been around long enough to know how to make adjustments. I predict that he has another horrible outing on Friday, he'll probably wind up in the bullpen. Or, they'll put him on the DL for some mystery "injury." Either way, Swarzy might just get that next outing. Of course, I really hope he has an awesome outing.
  
• I like the campaign the Twins put together for All-Star Game voting. It features Uncle Sam wearing a Twins hat and saying, "Speak softly and carry big sticks." Check it out on the Twins website. And while you're there, you may as well vote for Joey and Justin.

And totally off-topic (I know, there wasn't a topic to begin with...whatever), but on my mind anyway:

• I went to Einstein Bros for lunch today. As I walked in, I noticed two women sitting at one of the tables. I'd put them in their mid 50s. One of the women was wearing only, get this, a sports bra and shorts. She was very fit and pretty tan, so she wasn't nastily ugly. But, still, that was an awful lot of skin for 11:30 am. In fact, it was an awful lot of skin for any time of day. I don't care if she was just jogging -- I wear more clothes than that when I exercise (hell, I wear more clothes than that when I sleep, but that's probably more than you wanted to know) -- she needs to throw on a t-shirt, especially in a restaurant. I was glad I took my lunch to go.
  

A Stars and Sweeps Weekend

Friday: Twins 12 - Cleveland 3
Saturday: Twins 9 - Cleveland 6
Sunday: Twins 4 - Cleveland 3

Twins sweep 3 game series.

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First of all, a great big hug and kiss for our All Stars -- Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Joe Nathan. Of course, we all knew they're All Stars, but it's nice that the fans (in Joey's case), the players (Justin's), and Mr. Francona (Nathan's) agreed. Way to go guys, and have a bunch of fun.

I do, however, have a piece of advice for Justin: Please don't participate in the Homerun Derby. I actually believe in the whole "ruining your swing" curse, and your homerun swing can ill afford ruining. Not that I don't appreciate all the RBI and the defense, I really do, but let's face it, your homerun production is down this year. Let's not give it any reason to get worse. Thanks.

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Now on to the Indians series -- Very cool. I loved the homers by LNP, Delmon, and Joey. I loved how Scott Baker and Glen Perkins didn't get rattled after having bad innings. And I really liked coming from behind and winning. However, to be honest, I didn't think there was a prayer in Sunday's game after the Twins were down 3 - 0. I'm glad the players didn't think that way.

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Non-baseball alert: For the first time in my life, I was absolutely captivated by the Men's Finals at Wimbledon on Sunday. Now I haven't really followed tennis since Johnny Mac's days, and even then it was merely a passing interest. Since then, pretty much everything I know about the current players I've learned by osmosis.

But Federer and Nadal really made it exciting. I was pulling for Nadal, and he'd get oh-so close to winning, but couldn't quite seal the deal because Federer is so good. Too bad I couldn't watch the entire 5+ hour affair; we had to leave. I was glad to learn that Nadal finally pulled it off in the end.

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As I write this, ESPN is reporting that the Indians will be trading noted Twins hater Captain Cheeseburger* (a.k.a. C.C. Sabathia) to the Brewers for a minor leaguer and prospects. It looks like he'll have to find a National League middle infielder to eat -- Mike Fontenot might do. LNP must be very relieved.

* This is totally a Bat-Girl.com reference. If you're not familiar with Bat-Girl, well, sorry.