Get Away Day Blues

Saturday (1) Twins 12 - O's 2
Saturday (2) Twins 12 - O's 6
Sunday Twins 3 - O's 7

Twins take series 2-1

Another opportunity to sweep a team we should sweep, and another loss. As I was marching around the house and grumbling about the game, Dick-n-Bert were talking about the upcoming Cleveland series. Which got me thinking that it seems like they lose a lot of games where they have to head out to another city after they're done (known as "Get Away" days).

So I decided I'd figure it out to see if I was right. I've got nothing else to do between loads of laundry on a rainy, crappy Sunday afternoon.

First of all, I define Get Aways as games when the team travels right after them. And, I've read/heard from the newspaper and radio/TV guys that they travel right after the game even if the following day is an off-day, so I counted those too.

Here's what I came up with:



Ouch. It's worse than I thought.

So what's up with that? Are they too busy thinking of their next series to concentrate on their current game? Are they worrying if they forgot to pack their iPods? Are they suffering a collective bout of agoraphobia? Who knows?

The good news is that there are only two Get Away days left in the regular season (well, three if you count the last day of the season, which we may have to do if they need to play a tie-breaker). The bad news is that if they should happen to make the playoffs, Get Away days happen like every other game. They really, really, really need to reverse this trend if they make the playoffs.

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And, adding to the feeling of someone sneezing in our face, it looks like the Bad Guys are going to win both their games today, putting the Good Guys 1 1/2 games back. Ick.

[Edit] I, currently, at this moment, ♥ Marcus Thames for tying the White Sox - Tigers game with a fat grand slam. It's a whole new ball game. Go Tigers!

[Edit 2] Scratch that. Dewayne Wise just hit a fat grand slam to go ahead again.

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High-Five Goes To... Carlos Zambrano for tossing a no-hitter against the Houston Astros. Oddly, he did it in Milwaukee (thanks to Ike), so it must have felt more like a home game even though the Cubs were the visiting team.

Boof, There It Is

Twins 3 - Sox of the White Variety 1

Wow! Boof pitched great last night. He struck out a ton (8) of batters, and the defense behind him was strong. He even made a couple nice plays himself. Nice work, honey.

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Is Nick Swisher trying to look as ugly as possible? I mean he was pretty nasty the last time we played the Sox, but now he's even worse. In addition to the ugly white-dyed goatee, there's now this weird black chinstrap thing. Yuk. I'm glad I don't have to look at that all the time.

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I'm glad Nathanator got the giving up homeruns thing out of his system when it didn't matter instead of saving it for today.

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I kind of liked having Ron Coomer in the booth with Dick. It was interesting hearing more of a batter's point of view. But I am glad Bert will be back next time.

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Didn't Kubel's homer just sound pretty when he hit it?

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My favorite play was that double-play that Delmon got when he caught Thome's fly ball up against the wall, and threw to Harris who threw out Swisher returning to first. Absolute poetry there.

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And finally, the "All Together Now" moment of the game: When Ron was reading the disclaimer ("This copyrighted telecast is presented on the authority of the Minnesota Twins...") and he started stumbling, I just recited it from memory, and finished it way before he did. At first, I was feeling all superior, being able to just say it while he has a hard time reading it. But then it hit me: who's the real dork here?