Date: 9/10/09

Opponent: Toronto Blue Jays

Home/Away: Away

Starting Pitcher: Baker

Final Score: L 3-2

Record: 70-70

Best Moment: I can't really think of anything that was good with that game. Who is actually surprised that we ended up at .500 again? Yeah, that's what I thought. I think we have about a 99 percent chance of finishing the season at exactly .500. We can't stay away from its sweet siren song.

As for the Twins, well, our offense put the ugh in ugly, the ass in disastrous, the fuck in fuckterrible. Hmmm, maybe I should say the terrible in fuckterrible. Whatever. The fact is, we failed to execute. Despite having 4 doubles, only one of those runners came around to score. And it's not like the Toronto pitcher was amazing by any means. We just couldn't get our offense in gear. Pathetic.

It goes to show you what a funny game baseball is. On paper, we shouldn't have won Wednesday's game. On the other hand, we really should have won this game with Baker on the mound. And then you look at the Tigers, who were swept by the Royals and their merry band of triple-A crap starters.   

Most Questionable Moment: After Punto lays down a terrible bunt that ends up getting the lead runner out at 2nd, Gladden refers to him as "one of the best bunters on the team". Has he been watching any of these games? Hello! Punto sucks at bunting, at least in high-leverage situations. Rather reminiscent of the time Gardy commented that Punto was a good baserunner. Span had similar issues when he popped up a bunt. Of course, maybe we should just let Span hit like normal (considering his high on base percentage) instead of trying to get him to waste an out by bunting.

Worst Moment: We had plenty of opportunities to score, but it really hurts when Mauer and Morneau go a combined 0 for 8. Everyone else in the starting lineup reached base: Span homered, Cabrera had a double and a single, Kubel singled, Cuddyer and Young both doubled, Harris walked twice, and Punto doubled.

Quotations of the Day:

• "We'll play some good games, beat some tough pitchers, and then come out and just not do what we should do. In games where we should carry momentum over, we haven't been able to do it. It's a game we needed to win and we didn't do it, and that's why we're a .500 team." - Justin Morneau. Instead of speaking in generalities, how about you man up and just say, "I'm sucking and it's largely my fault that we're a .500 team." That would really make me feel better.
• "We gave up three runs and we got four off Halladay last night. I'm not saying the guy can't go out there and throw a good game, but with the opportunities we had [we should have done more]. I don't know if he focused better or if we needed to focus better or what it was, but we had plenty of opportunities and we just didn't do it." - Justin Morneau. There he goes with that "we" again. I think he means "I".
• "It's not because of lack of effort. I know guys are going out there and doing the very best they can. It just hasn't worked out as of late. We're just going to keep battling and see where we're at in a couple days." - Scott Baker

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Joe Mauer (0 for 4, 1 strikeout, 2 left on base) and Justin Morneau (0 for 4, 2 left on base).