Earlier this season, I wrote about how the good things that happen in baseball make me feel very good - and that while the bad things are annoying, the lowest of lows doesn’t come close to rivaling the highest of highs. The Twins can make you numb for a while with the performance they turned in during Game 2 against the Yankees, but I could make a list of a dozen things that happened this season - each of which would outweight how that loss made me feel. OK, maybe only a half-dozen, but you get the idea.
Yeah, I’m still pretty incredulous that Nick Punto made his heads-down base-running blunder in the eighth inning - rounding third, heading toward home and getting thrown out trying to return on the single that Derek Jeter tracked down behind second base. And I’m even more incredulous that Punto - while being a stand-up guy for talking about the play - said it happened because of the crowd reaction to Denard Span’s grounder: “55,000 people screaming, the crowd got me.”
Nobody out, tie game, Scott Ullger (the third-base coach) giving the stop sign. It was as if Punto wanted to cement the folly of those who still talk about the Twins “doing the little things right” - and as if Carlos Gomez hadn’t driven home that point with his Game 2 gaffe at second base. Jerry White, the coach responsible for issues on the bases, needs to spend the winter revising his curriculum.
Yeah, I’m still trying to figure out what happened to Jason Kubel, who had one hit and nine strikeouts in the three games. And the whole Joe Nathan thing in Game 2 and the three walks-by-three relievers breakdown in the ninth that let the Yankees extend their lead from 2-1 to 4-1.
And I’m annoyed that it is the Twins who are contributing so mightily to the rehabilitation of A-Rod’s reputation as something other than an October choke artist. Good and annoyed.
So many parts went kablooey over these last three games that it’s a wonder two of them were as competitive as they turned out to be. Face it, kids. The Yankees are the best team in baseball. They won 103 games and pretty much ran off with the best division in baseball. Would they have won 123 if they played in the AL Central? That doesn’t excuse the Minnesota mistakes as much as make me wonder why the games weren’t tennis-match scores - 6-0, 6-0, 6-0.
The best team doesn’t always win in October, but it’s kind of nice to have a No. 7 batter (Robinson Cano), who batted .320 and hit 25 homers, and a No. 8 (Nick Swisher) who had 29 homers and a .371 on-base percentage. How does that compare to Brendan Harris and Jose Morales, the Twins 7/8 guys in Game 3? After the game, a spent-sounding Gardy gave appropriate props to the Yankees while duly noting the breakdowns by Punto and the bullpen.
Some of the fun memories from Game 3 will come from the 54,000 or so people with whom Ms. Baseball and I shared the Metrodome for its last major-league baseball game. These things had little to do with the game. The stadium-wide laughter and “A-Rod” chant following the playing of that public service announcement with the crumbling statue: “Sports are good for a kid’s body. Steroids aren’t.”