Tough Twins Loss

Wow. That's all I can say about the Twins 1-0 loss to the hated Chicago White Sox tonight that ended their season. Surprisingly, it was an extremely well-pitched game by Nick Blackburn and John Danks. Both pitchers had struggled late in the season. Danks had nearly an 8.00 ERA against the Twins; Blackburn's wasn't much better against the Sox. Both pitchers came to play though.

The Twins caught every bad break in this game. In the first inning, Denard Span walked, and Alexi Casilla hit a line shot to the third baseman on a hit-and-run, resulting in a double play. Ken Griffey Jr. made a perfect throw to nab Michael Cuddyer at the plate in the 5th inning and somehow A.J. held onto the ball after Cuddyer slammed into him. Alexei Casilla hit a frozen rope to center field and Brian Anderson (Griffey's defensive replacement) made a spectacular diving catch to end the game, and the Twins season. If the ball gets past him, it's at least a double for Casilla with Joe Mauer coming up. Tough breaks.

In the end, the game came down to one swing of the bat by one of the biggest Twins killers ever, Jim Thome. He absolutely obliterated Blackburn's 2-2 delivery over the center field fence for a lead off home run in the 7th. The fact is, the Twins offense just didn't produce in this game. They had two hits, and a few walks. But the biggest stat was this: Neither Joe Mauer or Justin Morneau reached base, the first time this happened ALL SEASON. Yes, that's not a misprint. ALL SEASON. I couldn't believe that when I first read it, but no wonder the Twins couldn't scrape together a couple runs. Your stars have to produce.

It ended up being a great season for the Twins. Obviously, no one thought they would get to game #163. They proved a lot of people, probably even themselves and their manager, wrong. However, since they were in contention all year, it doesn't take away the disappointment of tonight and the last few weeks of terrible play. The Twins gave this division away not tonight (because they played a very competitive game), but over the last month. Win one more on the big road trip, one more against KC, one more anywhere, and we would be headed down to Tampa for the ALDS. As it is, there's no more Twins baseball until Spring Training.

It truly was a Summer of Stun, as my role model Paul Allen called it. Hats off to the Twins for a great season. I definitely had fun following it.

I'll have a Vikings preview and a Twins off-season outlook later this week.

I'm now going to cry myself to sleep in my Twins blanket and my "Suck the White Fox" t-shirt. Tough night. I feel for you guys.

Thanks for reading.