Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008
The Twins let the Yankees off the hook. That's usually a bad idea. Plus: Red Sox and Astros win. And: Trivial presidential World Series trivia.
Oct 7, 2004 | The Twins and Yankees appear to have taken on the burden of playing the exciting games this postseason. Six playoff games have been played so far and four of them have been 8-3 or 9-3 blowouts, though one of those wasn't broken open until the ninth.
The only close finishes were in the Twins tense 2-0 win over the Yanks in Game 1 Tuesday and the Yankees' seesaw, 12-inning, 7-6 decision in Game 2 Wednesday, a game that would have gone down in history as a classic if it had been played later in the month. It also might have put Twins manager Ron Gardenhire on the hot seat if it had happened closer to Halloween. Ask Grady Little about that.
It's not every day you get to see two of the best relief pitchers in baseball blow a lead in the same game, but that's what happened Wednesday. First Mariano Rivera of the Yankees, arguably the greatest relief pitcher in postseason history, came in with one out and two on in the eighth and the Yankees up 5-3.
He promptly gave up a single to Justin Morneau for one run, then a double down the left-field line to Corey Koskie that would have plated two and given the Twins the lead, but it hopped over the fence for a ground-rule double. That kept the go-ahead run at third, and from that point, Rivera snapped back to form, getting the next two outs to preserve the tie. It was the third blown postseason save of Rivera's career.
The game went to extra innings and in the 10th the Twins brought in Joe Nathan, who blossomed this year into a first-rate closer after coming over from the Giants, where he'd recovered from early-career injuries to turn in a nice year in relief in 2003. He blew through the fierce top third of the Yankees' order -- Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield -- in the 10th.
In the 11th, against Tanyon Sturtze, the Twins got the speedy Christian Guzman to third with the go-ahead run with two outs, but the hitter was Pat Borders. Pat Borders, that rare major leaguer who is actually older than your humble typist. Pat Borders, who last played 100 games in the big leagues in 1993, who last played 40 games in the big leagues in 1998. He struck out.
Nathan gave up only a one-out walk while striking out two in the 11th, and then Torii Hunter gave the Twins a 6-5 lead with a home run in the 12th. But Nathan took the mound again in the bottom of the inning. Before Wednesday he'd appeared in 43 straight games without throwing more than one inning. He hadn't entered a third inning all year, and now that's what he was doing.
He struck out John Olerud with his last whiff of gas, and then ran off the road. He threw nine straight balls, walking Miguel Cairo and Jeter. And still Gardenhire left him out there. "I probably left him out there too long," he'd say later. "But, really, the options, I didn't like them too well, either."
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