It’s his second of the game! And it gives the Twins a much-needed home win.
On a nasty-hot-and-humid day, Rays starter Zack Littell was juuuuust a bit better than Twins one Chris Paddack. But Harrison Bader opted to channel his inner Harmon. Inning-by-inning notes:
1: Sad news from the radio. We used to have infrequent “Hosken Powell Memorial Link Dumps” around here, Stu’s silly name for articles that contained lotsa links and short descriptions of what they linked to. The joke was there was nothing wrong with Hosken Powell, he wasn’t a Twin for very long, and he has a neat name.
He died last week, in his hometown of Pensacola, FL, at age 70. Here’s a decent obituary by Kevin Glew, whose website focuses on Canadians in baseball and baseball in Canada (Powell played two seasons in Toronto). It looks like it’s a pretty interesting website overall, so check it out if you like.
Nagurskiinnortheast shared that Powell and fellow Twin Willie Norwood were “supposed to make fans feel better about losing” Larry Hisle, Lyman Bostock, and Rod Carew, which was “a lot to ask of those guys. RIP Hosken.”
2: There is a Rays player named Jake Mangum. There was also a baseball player named Leo Mangum, who pitched in 85 games in seven seasons, mostly in relief. He had a baseball card:
So, that’s the ManGum gum card.
BH-Baseball informs us that the Twins traded Hosken Powell to Toronto for Greg “Boomer” Wells. Wells played in 15 games for the Twins, and 1148 games in the JPL. With an OPS of .927 and 277 home runs. Wow.
As you’d guess, nothing of any interest is happening in this baseball game, and probably nothing of interest WILL happen. If we’re lucky. If we’re unlucky, a Twins player will lose their femur or something.
3: Paddack is sailing right along, perfect through three! Which is good because the Twins are never gonna score again, guilty bats got no hits in ‘em.
Kinda almost? With two outs, Willi Castro walks, and Trevor Larnach singles him to third. Then the Twins, who aren’t reeking of desperation at ALL, try a tricky double steal — Larnach goes, and as catcher Danny Jansen makes the throw, Castro dashes for home. Larnach is called out.
As Dan Gladden points out on radio, Larnach screwed this up. He had a super-low chance of getting the stolen base. The plan was for him to INTENTIONALLY get caught in a rundown, or even pull up short of second and let himself get tagged out. AFTER Castro had scored. The second Jansen threw the ball, Larnach should have stopped running. But muscle memory told him to slide, so he slid.
See! I kid Gladden sometimes (‘cuz he sometimes says very goofy things), but I’ll credit him where credit is due. That was actually useful information, Mr. Dazzle Man.
4: No more perfecto. Two two-out hits finish that off. But Paddack gets out of it. He’s at 57 pitches now, so I’m not sure when his arm turns into a pumpkin.
I still miss Do-Hyoung Park on the mlb.com Twins beat. No offense to Matthew Leach, but has he ever been on Jeopardy? Park has. (He lost, but it was close.) Anyways, Leach’s newsletters usually have some music picks, frequently ones I also enjoy. But this week he was WRONG.
He listed some tunes from 2005, and included “Black Tambourine.” No. Just no, Matthew. That is not the song you pick from Guero. This is.
I also would have accepted “E-Pro,” or probably any song except “Black Tambourine.”
5: One of those Weird Baseball moments. Mangum (who does NOT have a gum card, unlike Leo — Topps stopped putting gum in card packs in 1992) swings at a pitch, kinda tips it off his arm and it rolls in front of the plate. He starts running, as the ump missed it — but Paddack saw it immediately and pointed it out. They correct the call — it’s a foul ball.
Finally a touchdown point goal! Harrison “Ford Darth” Bader with the solo shot. Into the Treasure Island Field Deck, which means Treasure Island will donate $2500 to the Twins’ Community Fund, so that’s a good thing.
6: THAT didn’t last long. Josh Lowe singled and Yandy Díaz doubled him in. Pumpkin time for Paddack, or whichever fall gourd you prefer. I suppose I’d probably take butternut squash myself. Danny “Electric Charge” Coulombe comes in and gives up the winning run to Junior Caminero. I guess the game’s not over yet, but do YOU expect the Twins to manage more than one run? Me neither. Devil Rays 2-1
7: Tough start to the relief outing for Brock Stewart, a hit, SB, and walk — you’ll remember that, two days ago, he was saved from blowing the lead because a ball hit the umpire. He’s almost saved here when Danny Jansen can’t get a bunt down and pops out instead. Then the Rays try a double steal and Jeffers nails the lead runner at third. Doesn’t matter — Josh Lowe’s second hit provides the RBI. Cole “Alberta Tar” Sands cleans things up.
Edwin Uceta, whose mlb.com player page displays some very stylish ear wear, is the reliever for Tampa and Matt Wallner leads him off with a single. Royce Lewis Ks, and Ty France celebrates Bastille Day a little early with a single of his own. Bader Ks. Then Buxton’s up and OH MY GOSH THE TWINS MAKE A SCORING! Buxton doubles. France has to hold up at first because he’s not very fast.
Garrett J. Cleavinger plunks Castro. And then… RBI plunk! Scoring the Homer Simpson way! Fortunately Brooks Lee was NOT hit in the head, as Homer was. Carlos Correa… check-swing strikes out, which is like kinda the lousiest way to strike out. But… this baby is all tied up 3-3
8: A solid outing for Louis Varland, who I guess has said if you’re not out on the water, you’re not a real Minnesotan. As in fishing, he means. Lake stuff. Well, I don’t fish. And Louis Varland’s only been a Minnesotan four years longer than I have.
Another baserunning blunder, this one by pinchrunner DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (He came in for Ryan Jeffers after a leadoff walk. Keirsey stole second, and failed to tag up on a loooong fly to center. He shoulda gotten to third there. Didn’t matter, as Ty France struck out anyways, but it’s what they call a “teachable moment” for the youngling.
9: A leadoff murder, as Harrison Bader kills a fan with his bare hand (just the one hand) and eats the brain (with the other hand). Not really. Would you accept a walkoff home run, instead? Twins win!
Studs of the game: Bader (duh). I guess we’ll give one to Brooks for getting his RBI the painful way. Duds: Tampa Bay’s replay challenge calls (two of ‘em, both failed, adding more minutes to a game on a very hot day). The win puts the Twins 4.0 GB in the wildcard chase and ∞.5 behind the Tigers.
Comments of the game go to sandwiches for “GO TWINS GO” because it was his first comment of the GT and immediately after it was posted, the Twins went. norff for “I think whats been so irritating about this particular stretch of sucking is that it’s so mundane. Substandard hittting. Starting pitching not giving a chance. There’s nothing interesting about how theyre losing, they just roll over and die” because that’s what it felt like for most of this game.
And to Matt M for knowing his Bible far better than most of those who thump it.
Tomorrow’s game will be at 1:10, and the Twins haven’t named a starter yet, following Bailey Ober’s going on the IL. The Rays are starting something called a Taj Bradley.
Some morons in my neighborhood are setting fireworks off already. Don’t blow your fingers off, folks. I’m not a huge fireworks fan myself, having seen enough shows for a lifetime. But I get why people like them, and have for 1000 years!
My favorite-ever fireworks show, though, came in San Diego in 2012, when a computer glitch turned a planned 15-minute show into a 15-second one.
I’d have liked to see THAT.
Be safe out there, friends.