Twins foil Boston’s comeback attempt
On Sunday night, the Twins had a sizable lead against the Red Sox, and they had Joe Nathan ready to close out the ninth.
One would think that the Twins would cruise with a big lead, but the Red Sox battled back to cut the deficit and get back in the game.
One would think Nathan would quickly close it out yet the Red Sox were able to make it a one-run game and they almost tied it.
Fortunately for the Twins, they survived all night long to hang on to a 9-8 win against the Red Sox. This win gives them a guarantee that they will get the split, and they will get an opportunity to win the series Monday night.
If anyone thought the Twins were going to cruise through an easy win against the defending champs, then they were in for a rude awakening. The Red Sox are never out of it with that lineup. They are very good from 1 to 9. They just take good at-bats and make pitchers throw so many pitches. With that type of offense and quality pitching, it’s a good bet that Boston will likely win the World Series for the second straight year.
The Twins were able to take batting practice off Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield in the second and third inning.
The Twins got a three-run home run by Craig Monroe and a two-run home run by Adam Everett of all people in the second inning, and then, Mike Lamb took Wakefield out of the game by driving in two more runs as the Twins took a 7-1 lead in the third inning.
Boston scored three runs just like that in the fourth inning to make it 7-4. Nick Blackburn, who improved to 3-2 with this win, gave up three hits to start the fourth, and the Red Sox were able to capitalize their opportunities by driving them in.
The Twins went to the bullpen in the seventh inning after a satisfying performance by Blackburn.
Coco Crisp, who has had a good series against the Twins, hit a two-run home run off Matt Guerrier to make it 8-6.
Nathan came in the mound to close out a Twins’ 9-6 lead, which came when Monroe hit his second home run of the game
Nathan struggled in the ninth, which is rare for him. Boston hit the ball hard off him. He gave up couple of singles, and J.D. Drew hit a RBI double to cut Boston’s deficit to 9-7.
Crisp’s fielder choice sent Mike Lowell home to make it a 9-8 game.
With two outs, it was mano vs. mano as Nathan faced Manny Ramirez, who is a game-changer.
The Twins were getting nervous in the dugout as they wondered if Nathan would hold on to this win.
The Twins closer won the duel as Ramirez grounded out to end the game.
Nathan, the Twins, and Twins fans breathe easily in the end.
All’s well that ends well.
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4 Responses to “Twins foil Boston’s comeback attempt”
May 12th, 2008 at 12:43 am
A great game, and nearly a second consecutive Mother’s Day Miracle for the Red Sox.
It wasn’t, in hindsight, but Nathan getting Drew at 3rd on Coco’s fielder’s choice was a heads-up play, and one that could’ve ended up being very important.
Of course, every save for Nathan, no matter how ugly, is a punch in the face to a Giants fan after the Pierzynski debacle.
May 12th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Thanks for reading and responding, Daniel. Also thanks for the chat.
I am just glad the Twins won this contest, and I am glad they got the split if the Twins don’t get it done in winning the series.
Yeah, I agree that play was important.
It was a great game, but this game took the life out of me. I was actually nervous about this game.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
First off if I wanted a recap of the game I would go to a saphisticated writer on ESPN or something not a amateur wanna be writer on this site. Second you are not giving an insight into the Twins…it’s obvious things i.e. what happened in the game. If you want to be thought of a good writer leave your works open for comment. That is what blogs are for, for people to go back and forth stating opinions on different subjects not the box score or play play or recap that you copied off of some other website. Come on man be original…I still think you should be fired btw!!!
May 13th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Thanks for the constructive criticism. You made some good points that I will look into.
I have to admit that I have work to do. I will see what I can do to get better. The thing is for me is that I like to tell a story of what happened, which is my purpose of writing for this site. That’s my bread and butter. i like to be more of a columnist and all.
For me, I like to write a game story and try to inject some commentary. Obviously, it seems like no one wants to read that type of format, and that’s fine. I will look at other avenues to make this better by reading through other blog entries at this site. I could do a game story and then give my thoughts under comments. We will see how this works and all. I prefer to write a game story or op-ed piece here.
As for lack of insight, I thought I mentioned some things. Didn’t I give an insight of how good Boston is? If that’s not insight, I don’t know what is. I probably should have talked little bit more on what the Twins did right and wrong here in that game Sunday night, but I focused more on what Boston did since it made sense at the time. On Saturday’s game, I talked about what made Glen Perkins good and why he should get a shot of making the rotation. On Friday’s night game, I thought about how that win meant a lot for the Twins and how it set the stage for the rest of the series.
As for the lacks of comments, outside of the Yankees and Red Sox blog, I don’t see any comments in any other blog entries on the site. Again, I will see what I can do to improve, which is something every writer should do. I will get better at this.
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