Date: 10/6/09

Opponent: Detroit Tigers

Home/Away: Home

Starting Pitcher: Baker

Final Score: W 6-5 (12 innings)

Record: 87-76

Best Moment: Did that just happen? It's been hours, and I'm still in complete shock. That was the craziest, most stressful yet exciting game I've ever seen. And I was at work watching the game on my phone for the first 8 innings. Yet this wonderful, crappy little Twins team that seemed so determined all year to stay at .500 until going on a 17-4 tear down the homestretch has somehow made the playoffs. Sure, we're arguably the worst team making it, with the worst rotation (our Game 1 starter is Brian Duensing; enough said), and facing the most dominant team in either league. But we made it. That's enough for me right now. And who knows? Crazy things happen in baseball. Now, if we can just keep the ball in the park. Enough worrying about being a lamb to the slaughter though, let's focus on the awesomeness of this game.

First of all, I think I need to issue an apology. Matt Tolbert, Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla, Orlando Cabrera, Carlos Gomez, Bobby Keppel, I take back all of the horrible things I've said about you over this season. I love you all. Of course, I reserve the right to malign you all at any point in the future, be it the ALDS or next season, but for now the slate is clear. Glad I got that off my chest. Also, to my brother Matt, who told me with the utmost confidence that the Twins were going to win the division after I told him my goal was to at least hold off the White Sox for 2nd place, all I can say is you were right. Enjoy it. I'm unlikely to ever tell you that again.

I'm going to really recap the game here, so feel free to skim if you're bored. I just don't want to forget anything. The scoring started off on the Tigers' side, with 3 runs in the 3rd thanks to a RBI single from Ordonez followed by a 2-run homer from Miguel Cabrera. Yes, another one of Baker's patented big innings, followed (naturally) by him settling down and eventually finishing 6 innings to get a quality start (yeah, how did that happen?). The Twins scored a run in the 3rd to start nibbling at the lead thanks to Tolbert scoring from 3rd on an errant pickoff throw to 1st. All of this I watched miserably on my phone, with the 2 runs seeming insurmountable with Porcello dominating the Twins. Fortunately, he slipped up a bit in the 6th and gave up a home run to Kubel with 2 outs to make the score 3-2. Porcello was pulled in favor of the Zach Miner after walking Cuddyer. Miner loaded the bases by giving up a single to Young and hitting Harris, but he escaped by getting Tolbert to fly out to center (Princess would later redeem himself; there seemed to be a lot of people in this game screwing up and then coming through later in a key spot).

The 7th inning got a somewhat subdued crowd back into the game when Orlando Cabrera homered with Punto on base to give the Twins a lead. This was also one of my favorite moments thanks to Cabrera's high-five attack of Gardenhire in the dugout, which led to Gardy cowering terrified in the corner. Check it out here at about the :41 second mark. All looked well in hand, but it wasn't going to be that simple. Guerrier was left on in the 8th after getting the final out of the 7th. He immediately surrendered a tying home run. I'm thinking this may have been an occasion for a 6-out save, but oh well. Guerrier got an out but then walked the next 2 batters, forcing Gardenhire to turn to Nathan. He delivered, with a pop-up and strikeout.

The bottom of the inning was quiet for the Twins, bringing our All-Star closer on again for the top of the 9th. Ramon Santiago (My Tiger tiger!) led off with a bunt single, and Granderson followed with a single to put runners on 1st and 3rd. But Nathan struck out Placido Polanco looking (uh, that may not have been a strike, but I'm hardly going to complain) before lucking into a double play after Ordonez hit a line drive to Cabrera, who caught Granderson straying too far from the bag. Not so smart. Nathan was very excited, to put it mildly. 

Then the Twins had a chance to walk-off in the bottom of the 9th with Punto walking to lead off the inning. Span sacrificed him to 2nd, but Cabrera grounded out and was unable to advance the runner, and Mauer was intentionally walked. Up to the plate walked Gomez, a defensive replacement in the 8th, and the kind of defensive replacement you pray doesn't end up having to bat. Gomez swung at the first pitch and grounded into a fielder's choice. He would redeem himself later (Redemption: It's a leitmotif in this game, people!). 

Next inning brought in Jesse Crain. He hit a batter, who later came around to score on a Brandon Inge double. I thought we were dead at that moment. 1 run, no room for error in the bottom of the 10th. But then the Dome worked its magic. Cuddyer hit a fly ball to left, but Ryan Raburn tried to make a diving catch and lost the ball in the lights. Playing the ball on the hop would have likely led to a single. Instead, Cuddyer made it all the way to 3rd. DY grounded out and couldn't score Cuddyer with the infield playing in. Harris stepped up to the plate and worked a walk before being replaced by pinch runner Alexi Casilla. Here comes Matt Tolbert, ready to make up for flying out with the bases loaded. He hit a seeing-eye single up the middle. I have no idea how it got through. It was very nearly a double play. Maybe it was fate or luck or divine intervention, but the single scored Cuddyer and sent Casilla to 3rd. Punto is the next batter and he hits a line drive right to the left fielder. Casilla, perhaps overexcited, didn't go back to 3rd soon enough to get a good jump when tagging up and got thrown out at home. He would later redeem himself. Of course.

The 11th inning. Crain stayed in for the first out, but Mahay came out of the bullpen to face Granderson, who struggles mightily against lefties. Mahay got him to strike out, and Gardenhire had a dilemma. All of the so-called good bullpen was used up. Guerrier, Nathan, Rauch, Crain, Keppel, Mijares (actually, he's been terrible since the incident in Detroit; I can't be the only one afraid of seeing him pitch in the ALDS). Now Mahay as well. Gardy decided to go with the oft-unreliable Keppel over Manship, Gabino or Liriano. Keppel easily finished the inning. The Twins went down in order in the bottom of the inning, so Keppel came back on to start the 12th. Hundreds of thousands of Twins' fans covered their eyes (seriously, I was watching the game through my fingers).

The first out came easily, but Keppel made an interesting and tense game even more interesting and tense. He walked Cabrera, before giving up a single to Don Kelly. Delmon Young threw the ball to 3rd where there was no play, allowing Kelly to advance to 2nd. Cue Gardy pulling off his hat and rubbing his head in frustration. The Twins chose to walk Ryan Raburn to get to Brandon Inge. It looked like Inge was hit by a pitch, which would have driven in the go-ahead run, but the umpire didn't call it. He ended up hitting a chopper to 2nd, which Punto fielded and, fearing he couldn't get the double play, threw to home for the force out. It was a great play, and possibly the play of the game. Keppel came back and struck out Gerald Laird (the poor chipmunk-faced catcher with the rifle-arm left 10 men on base) to get out of the tricky spot.

Which brings us to the 12th inning. Leading off? Carlos Gomez, the dreaded defensive replacement. It was his turn for redemption, as he singled to get the Twins on the right track. Cuddyer grounded out to advance Gomez to 2nd. The Tigers chose not to pitch to Delmon, and intentionally walked him to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Up came Casilla, with a chance for (you guessed it) redemption for the bad baserunning move in the 10th. He singled to the right-side of the infield, and Gomez flew around 3rd to score the winning run. It seems only fitting in a season this weird that a mop-up relief pitcher would get the win (his first major league win in fact and possibly the best first win ever), while the winning run would be scored by a defensive replacement and be driven in by a light-hitting benched middle infielder. After all, we are the team that decided to stop sucking when we lost our biggest power threat and All-Star 1st baseman. In all, the Twins used 12 position players and 8 pitchers. Talk about a team victory. The Twins win the division, coming back from a 7-game deficit with a month to play. Just incredible. The Tigers definitely helped a lot though. They had their chances to put the final nail in our coffin, but they couldn't quite manage.

The team took some time to celebrate before their departure for New York. It was pretty fun watching Mauer leading the team in a victorious lap around the Dome to high five fans, Gomez waving the Twins flag, Jon Rauch wandering around the clubhouse looking creepy and dumping beer on Gardy from his superior vantage point, and Mauer dancing around while his teammates sprayed him with beer and champagne and chanted "MVP". Magic earned his 3rd batting title today, and hopefully clinching the division will help him sew up the MVP award as well.

The Twins may get massacred by New York, but that was a great game. I've never experienced such a roller coaster during a game. My throat is sore from screaming, and I'm still occasionally breaking out into near-hysterical fits of laughter. I can't quite believe we won. I convinced myself so many times we were going to lose. Get some sleep Twins, and good luck! Kick some Yankee ass! The 0-7 mark against the Yankees doesn't bode well, but streaks like that are meant to be broken. Holy shit, I just wrote a lot...

Most Questionable Moment: The umpiring. Randy Marsh made a lot of bad calls behind the plate. He did not redeem himself later (after all, 7 wrongs do not make a right). And of course he didn't call Inge getting hit by a pitch (Maybe because he didn't hear it thanks to all the noise in the Dome?). Then there was the commentators overuse of "fisting" as a descriptive term. And lastly, there was Craig Sager, covering the game for TBS. He was wearing a suit jacket of bright lavender that can only be described as vile. Or vomit-inducing. Or both. I would recommend incineration, as I can only see a drunk, color-blind Easter bunny wearing such an abomination.

Worst Moment: I honestly feel really, really bad for Detroit. It depresses me watching teams after they lose a big game. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we won, but I know everyone over there wanted it just as much. I was so afraid we were going to lose 2 tie-break games in a row by 1 run. And then I realized after the game that poor Adam Everett did lose 2 tie-break games in a row. Poor guy. How demoralizing. I like Adam Everett, and I wish he didn't have to go through that twice. Once was bad enough for me.

Quotations of the Day:

• "Great defense, great offense--this game had it all." - Denard Span
• "Alexi Casilla told me before the game, 'I'm going to win this game.' I swear to God. On the field before the game, he said, 'I'm going to win this game.'...Look what happened. It's a special moment. It's magic." - Orlando Cabrera
• "I can't describe the emotions right now. I have no words to say." - Alexi Casilla
• "We don't have a lot of game time. He got the winning run and me getting the winning hit, that's something special." - Alexi Casilla, on himself and Gomez.
• "That is as good a baseball game as I've ever been involved as far as courage from both teams. We came through at the end. But after 10 innings I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I've never seen anything like this.' It was just back and forth, neither team giving up." - Ron Gardenhire
• "The Metrodome deserved it. It's just a great feeling. The city deserves it. We just want to keep playing. They're not going to shut the Metrodome down quite yet." - Denard Span
• "It's emotionally draining. It's one of those things that when you're a little kid, this is what you dream of. We got to do it in a game like that. Not a lot of guys, not a lot of teams get to be in a position like that. It was awesome." - Nick Punto
• "Honestly, I think I've forgotten half the things that went on during this game. All I know is the last half-inning, Pavano and I were sitting next to each other and saying this is definitely the most incredible game we've been a part of. I think I've been a part of some pretty special games. This one blows it away." - Joe Nathan
• "I didn't think we were ever going to top 2006, but this one does. This one tops it." - Michael Cuddyer
• "That was just sick baseball. In young people’s terminology, sick.” - Ron Gardenhire. Wait, Gardy knows young people terminology?
• "Casilla and Go-Go, that’s our loose cannons. And we were yelling that in the dugout, with Gomez leading off and I knew Alexi was coming up, we were yelling, ‘Let’s have a loose cannon inning,’ and there it is.” - Ron Gardenhire. Let's play "Spot the Grammatical Error"!
• “A year ago I thought I was done with baseball, and now I’m celebrating in a big league clubhouse to go to the playoffs and play New York. This is a dream come true.” - Bobby Keppel. Awwww, that's so cute.
• "This is the most unbelievable game I've ever played or seen." - Orlando Cabrera
• "I guess it's fitting to say there was a loser in this game because we lost the game, but it's hard for me to believe there was a loser in this game. Both teams played their hearts out. You can't ask for anything more than that." - Jim Leyland
• "One of the best games I'll ever play in." - Joe Mauer
• "We were dead and buried a couple times, and our team just kept coming back." - Bill Smith
• "We're not afraid. I can guarantee you that." - Ron Gardenhire, on facing the Yankees.
• "You can't be tired now. If you're tired now, you need to be doing something else. This is ridiculous. No way. We're going to be ready to go tomorrow, prime time in New York City." - Denard Span
• "We have nothing to lose right now. We've had nothing to lose this whole last month of the season, and going into the playoffs we have nothing to lose. Everybody else is supposed to win against the Twins." - Denard Span
• "I don't know where I had that extra energy. I was just feeding off the crowd. It was an unbelievable atmosphere. I was surprised I got around there. It was a long game. The fans, they stuck around and gave us a great atmosphere. Players feed off of that." - Joe Mauer, referring to his victory lap.
• "He wanted this game really bad. We all did." - Justin Morneau, on Joe Mauer.

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Yeah right. Like I'm going to pick someone after that epic game.