Last Night Was Ugly, Then Willingham Made It Awesome

Full disclosure, I didn’t make it all the way through last night’s 3-2 win over the A’s. I am a huge baseball fan and I can sit through just about any game no matter the situation and score and still be entertained. Last night’s game, however, was hard to stomach.

Cole De Vries took to the mound last night and looked much like he did last week in Chicago – effectively wild and slightly indecisive. De Vries was able to work ahead early in the count, frequently putting the A’s in a 0-2 hole. Then De Vries started to nibble around the zone, seemingly hoping the Oakland hitters would get themselves out. The result was an outing that looked good on paper – 5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER – up until you see the 5 BB. Leave it to the Twins’ starting staff to refuse to throw strikes to the team with the lowest batting average in the American League.

The offense decided to have an off night as well. While the Twins were getting runners on base, they simply could not advance them all the way home. The result was a scoreless snoozer of a game going into the 7^th inning. When the A’s pushed across the go ahead run on a feeble ground ball to left field, I switched the TV off and kept an eye on the game via the MLB At-Bat app. When the A’s stretched their lead to 2-0 in the 8^th, I turned off the app and resigned myself to another Twins loss.

Funny thing happened after that though – the Twins started to put something together. Carroll singled, Span walked – Revere had an ugly bunt pop-out that failed to advance the runners (Ben, you’re a young, fast, contact hitter with the tendency to put the ball on the ground in big spots – you better learn how to bunt if you want to see major playing time). Mauer hit into a force out, advancing the Carroll to third but also putting the second out on the board.

Then, up came Willingham. In one powerful swing of the bat – the anemic offensive effort and the game were over.

It just goes to show that no game is over until the scoreboard says so. You’ll forgive me (and the Twins fans at the game) who gave up on this team in the 7^th, however. We’ve all been here too many times before; a winnable game falls apart because the offense can’t back up a solid outing from the starting staff / bullpen. Faced with watching the Twins lose for the 33^rd time in 49 games, many fans chose to do something (anything) else.

In the end, it was a nice win for the Twins who previously had failed to come from behind after they were trailing in the 8^th inning or later (0-28 on the season when they entered the 8^th trailing). It was a nice at bat for Willingham, who had looked very poor in his previous at bats. It will take a lot more of these wins (15 straight would be a nice start) to get the excitement back for this current season, but in a year where the Twins look like they could easily lose 100 games, a walk off win will always be appreciated.