MAY 15, 2009 -- NEW YORK 5, MINNESOTA 4

Absolutely ridiculous. Unbelievable. Ron Gardenhire cannot win in New York to save his life. It’s Joe Nathan’s turn to blow the game this time, failing to protect a 4-2 lead in the ninth inning and losing the game by giving up a two-out, two-run single to Melky Cabrera. That’s right, the Twins lost a game by giving up a hit to a guy named Melky.

For all the games that Matty Guerrier and Luis Ayala and Jesse Crain have lost recently, it was somewhat refreshing to see Joe Nathan lose a ballgame. I can at least accept Nathan losing a game a little bit more than the others; at least you’re losing with your best talent on the mound. Not uncharacteristic of the Twins was the fact that the momentum turned with Jesse Crain on the mound in the seventh inning. Brett Gardner, in the game because of Johnny Damon’s third inning ejection, looped a flyball down the left field line that Denard Span misplayed for an inside-the-park home run. Span displayed shades of Delmon Young on the play, and it was a costly error, as the fans and the Yankee players were rejuvenated by the play. Any momentum that the Twins had was gone, and Crain couldn’t finish the inning. Jose Mijares held the lead in the seventh and pitched a clean eighth, setting the stage for Nathan in the ninth.

Offensively the Twins did just enough to win the ballgame against starter Phil Hughes and the Yankees’ very mediocre bullpen. Justin Morneau hit two home runs and Joe Mauer one, and the other run was driven in by Nick Punto – I know, incredible! Of course it’s not my job to forget Carlos Gomez failing to drive a runner home from third base with less than two outs in the second inning. The Twins really had Hughes on the ropes early on and failed to put the game away. It seemed as if Matt Tolbert came to the plate with two guys on every time he batted and he failed to get a hit, dropping his average below .200. It’s so funny how Dick Bremer spins Tolbert’s nonexistent hitting as being “all the Twins asked for from the #2 hole.” What!!??? My question is, how low can Tolbert go and still be an everyday player? My intuition tells me that as long as he plays error-free ball in the field, his average can dip below the .l00 line before Ron Gardenhire thinks of making a change. The other question to ask is: how high does Brendan Harris’ average need to be at for him to be an everyday player? Again, I know Gardenhire, and he just doesn’t care for people that he penciled in as bench players during spring training to be hitting above .300 and deserving of a job. Ron Gardenhire doesn’t want to have to think about things, and especially when it comes to improving his ball club, Ron Gardenhire doesn’t want anything to do with that.

Such a debilitating loss like this really knocks the wind out of both a player and a fan. The game was very exciting, but the ending was certainly bittersweet. I’ve been around the Twins long enough to know that they’re packing it in today; expect a blowout in the range of 10-1. You can’t come this close to winning in Yankee Stadium – they’ll make up for it in spades today.

One final thought: an ESPN analyst hypothesized that Mark Teixeira’s overreaction to Carlos Gomez running outside the baseline in the eighth inning “stirred the team up” and may serve as a “catalyst” for turning around the season. Certifiable idiot Dick Bremer tried to defend Carlos Gomez on the play, whereas in reality the Yankees have a legitimate beef. Gomez was clearly running on the inside of the baseline and not in the runner’s lane that is provided. His sole intention was interfering with the play, and then he screams like a petulant child when Teixeira, a man with five hundred times the skill and smarts that Gomez has, called him out on his dirty play. With Seldom Delmon on the “family emergency list” for 3-7 days, this unfortunately means more playing time for Carlos Gomez, a Double-A player who is by far the dumbest person I’ve ever seen play the game – so dumb, in fact, that he makes Alexi Casilla look like a Jeopardy champ. You’ll read more next week on Gomez, who is the next Twin to be In the Doghouse.