MAY 29, 2009 -- TAMPA BAY 5, MINNESOTA 3

The Twins go on the road for a short three-game trip to Tampa Bay and follow their early-season routine of playing terrible baseball away from the friendly confines of the Metrodome. Again they pick a team off the mat; Tampa Bay was reeling from five-straight losses (including some heartbreakers in Cleveland, a city where they haven't won in four years) and is going through a rash of injuries. The perfect team for the Rays to play are the Twins at home right about now. So far this year the Twins have been Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; pretty tough to beat at home, and pathetically abyssmal on the road.


Scott Baker, following a familiar script that he's adhered to most of this season, started strong and faltered late. The sixth inning was the fatal inning for Baker this time around, as he gave up a three-run home run to Evan Longoria three batters into the inning; this was after Michael Cuddyer had tied the game with a long home run in the top half of the inning. One of the runs was unearned due to a Joe Crede error, which certainly loomed large after the Twins came back in the eighth with two runs to cut the margin to 4-3. Baker, who had retired seven in a row going into the sixth inning, was unable to finish the inning, yet another example of the right-hander hitting the wall with a "splat."


In that eighth inning, Justin Morneau doubled to bring home Joe Mauer, who had tripled, and Morneau scored following a Longoria error. The Twins had a chance to tie the game with Cuddyer on second and one out, but both Crede and Brendan Harris struck out. The bullpen did its job in the bottom of the eighth by giving up that critical insurance run; it took a couple of pitchers to do it, but the Crain-Mijares-Guerrier triumvirate came through to effectively seal the victory for the Rays. The fifth run was driven in by a guy named Willy Aybar -- it never fails to amaze me the players that the Twins choose to let beat them.


The Twins did have a mild threat in the ninth, but it is important to note that the Twins let Matt Tolbert lead the inning off -- as if Tolbert's numbers (.194 average, .535 OPS -- Puntoesque patheticness, which is a term I'm officially coining) dictate he'll actually get on base. Brian Buscher walked when he pinch hit for Carlos Gomez -- probably the only time in big-league history that a guy hitting .183 (Buscher) pinch hit for a guy hitting .217 (Gomez) and that was the correct move. I know that you're bench sucks, Gardenhire, and you know I don't care for Seldom Young, but why not go for it? Wouldn't you use your best players? Young's terrible, but he's better than Buscher, Tolbert, and Gomez. On a side note, Joe Mauer ended the game by striking out against ex-Yankee great Randy Choate, who I assumed was long out of baseball if not dead. Randy Choate -- such an obscure reference, and a perfect guy to shut the door on the Twins and record his first major-league save.


The Twins made me giddy for two seconds when I saw that they placed Nick Punto on the 15-day disabled list after the game with that lingering groin problem that's kept him gleefully out of the lineup for the last few days. Then, of course, I saw that the Twins were replacing Punto by calling up Alexi Casilla, who interestingly might be worse than Punto. The Twins are an amazing organization -- constantly bringing up horrible Punch-and-Judy slap hitters from the minors to replace horrible Punch-and-Judy slap hitters in the majors. Amazing.