Well, that was craptastic. Yes, I know that word is probably beneath the dignity of our slice of the Internet, but the only other ones I can think of are a little bit too vile, and I would regret seeing them attached to my name when looking back some day at my body of cyberwork.
The Twins gave away Game 2 in so many ways: Leaving 17 men on base… Gomez’ run-erasing baserunning gaffe… Leaving 17 men on base… Nathan’s pathetic ninth inning… Leaving 17 men on base… Young and Gomez swinging at first pitches in their bases-loaded at-bats in the 11th… Leaving 17 men on base… Nathan’s pick-off throw into center field in the 10th… Leaving 17 men on base… Kubel’s four strikeouts… Leaving 17 men on base.
So while Nathan’s performance will likely be the one that stands out over time, there were plenty of other people who contributed to the Game 2 demise.
As Joe Mauer said afterward, “We could have won the game earlier.”
Gotta like that for understatement.
Mauer made his comment when he was weighing in on the hubbub surrounding the blown call in the 11th by umpire Phil Cuzzi, who ruled Mauer’s fly ball foul when it clearly dropped about 10 inches inside fair territory. Called correctly, it would have been a ground-rule double. According to SI.com, Mauer went so far as to imply that Kubel’s at-bat could have ended differently if Mauer had been on second base instead of first (with the single he got after the blown call) because there wouldn’t have been the big hole between first and second that resulted from him being held on base. Kubel singled through that hole to right.
I also can’t help but think about the pitch that hit the muumuu that Brandon Inge wears for a baseball jersey during Tuesday’s Game 163. You know, the one that would have given the Tigers a lead in the 12th inning if it had been properly called. (Wearing a uniform top four sizes too big isn’t against the rules.) As Twins fans, we can be outraged by one call and whimsical about the other, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be called on our inconsistency.
This is probably petty, but the thing that seems to be bugging me most about these first two games is what the Twins have done to rehabilitate A-Rod’s reputation as a post-season puddle of ineptitude. He had two key hits in Game 1 and the game-tying homer off Nathan, which included that smarmy look-at-me fist pump toward the Yankees dugout - just so he could make sure they’d all been watching, I guess. Lame.