Date: 9/13/09

Opponent: Oakland Athletics

Home/Away: Home

Starting Pitcher: Duensing

Final Score: W 8-0

Record: 71-72

Best Moment: Hey look, we won! About time, too. We were drifting too far away from .500 for my liking. We also regained 2nd place in the division. As 2nd place is my goal for the season, I'm feeling quite pleased. Our offense finally got it together to score an impressive 8 runs. The top 4 batters (Span, Cabrera, Mauer and Cuddyer) were the biggest reason as they went a combined 9 for 14 with 3 walks, 6 runs scored, 7 RBIs, 1 double and 1 home run. The other 5 batters went 3 for 19 with 10 strikeouts. Actually, the bottom 3 weren't so terrible, it was just that Crede and Young went 0 for 8 with 6 of the strikeouts. And 4 of those strikeouts were from Crede, who was back in the starting lineup for the first time since coming off the DL. I'm thinking we may not see him again for some time. I also am pretty sure we've found a successful formula for winning: keep Morneau out of the lineup. I'm kidding. Kind of.

Duensing threw 7 shutout innings, although he worked himself into troubl over and over again, but managed to wriggle out of his self-made messes to keep the A's off the board. They had 10 hits and 3 walks and still didn't score. Hell, they didn't even ground into a double play and they still stranded all those men on base.

Most Questionable Moment: Delmon Young batting 5th? I know Kubel was a late scratch, but really?

Worst Moment: Can't really think of anything.

Quotations of the Day:

• "It’s been up, down, up, down. It’s amazing we’re still in it and still have a chance." - Michael Cuddyer
• "Somebody in the 4-hole finally got a hit." - Justin Morneau, per Ron Gardenhire, mocking his own lack of success of late. Well, at least he's still got a sense of humor.
• "A much-needed day for us to score some runs and get a great pitching performance." - Ron Gardenhire
• "I've surprised myself a lot, to be honest. I always knew I could throw strikes and stuff like that, but the results I'm getting is something I'm not used to." - Brian Duensing

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Delmon Young (0 for 4, 2 strikeouts, 1 GIDP, 4 left on base) and Joe Crede (0 for 4, 4 strikeouts, 2 left on base).