JULY 10, 2009 -- MINNESOTA 6, CHICAGO 4

A quick write-up today, as I am planning on bicycling the Lake Wobegon Trail tomorrow morning and I am trying to get some extra rest tonight. Thankfully, the Twins won on Friday, but the truth is that they didn’t really deserve it. They happen to have a guy on their team named Joe Mauer who is a phenomenal player, and it was Mauer who bailed out his team from what would have been an especially stinging loss. They jumped on John Danks’ wildness in the first inning, scoring four runs before Danks got an out. Then Michael Cuddyer, who had just produced an RBI single, provided a major momentum shift with a few seconds of pure idiocy, when he gets picked off first base. The next pitch, Danks strikes out Joe Crede with a runner at third (still) and Danks got Seldom Young to get out of the inning with just the four runs given up. You knew at that moment that Cuddyer was picked off that the White Sox would use that bonehead play to pick themselves off the mat, and they sure did. It took them a few innings, but they tied the score off ace pitcher Nick Blackburn, and it was 4-4 when Mauer came through with a clutch two-out single off tough lefty Matt Thornton.

The run was largely created because Octavio Dotel had walked Nick Punto to open the inning, and I have to use this space to congratulate Bert Blyleven for providing a glimmer of truth on what has become a big lie-fest, the Fox Sports Net coverage of the Minnesota Twins. Dick Bremer, who might as well run for Congress with his lying ability, can’t seem to bring himself to acknowledge the fact that Nick Punto is an abysmal baseball player, but Blyleven at least has gotten his head out of his ass. He predicted that the walk may come back to haunt the White Sox considering that the .210-hitting Punto is basically a pitcher at the plate – he used that exact comparison, which needless to say tickled me. Sure enough, Punto scored what turned out to be the winning run later that inning. Bremer tried to spin it into the fact that, though Punto is hitting just about his weight, he “can draw walks,” or something like that, which I’m all for. Actually what I would suggest is that Punto rest the bat on the shoulder full-time and try to take a walk every time up, because do you see this guy take full swings? It’s practically a train wreck, what with Punto stepping into the bucket and stumbling out of the box. I’d rather watch Jesse Ventura hit a tee shot that see Punto even attempt to swing the bat it’s that bad.

Good win for the Twins, who will have a challenge to win either of the last two games of the series. Gavin Floyd damn near no-hit the Twins last year and Glen Perkins apparently had the swine flu (H1N1, sorry), so they’ll be mismatched on Saturday, and Mark Buehrle’s primed for a complete-game, 90-pitch shutout on Sunday to end the first half of the season. Oh yeah, and Scott Baker pitches that day. Good luck.