Johan Santana was ace-like, throwing 7 strong innings, giving up just 4 hits with 3 runs. He walked 2 and struck out 10. Justin Morneau, though, was the hero of the day. He delivered a two-run homerun, his 30th of the year, in the top of the 8th to put the Twins ahead and put Santana in line for the win.
The top of the order had been doing it all, and if you take away Morneau’s hit, there was only one hit below the 1-2-3 hitters.
Luis Castillo has made an impressive run lately, as he’s raised his batting average 11 points in the past 10 games. He went 4-for-4 last night with a run, an RBI, a walk, and 3 stolen bases.
Joe Mauer went 2-for-3 with a key walk that led into a run thanks to Justin. His average is now up to .369.
In the top of the 8th, before Justin’s bomb, Michael Cuddyer struck out right before that. Although, I don’t want to call it a strikeout. I want to call it a…give up-out, because Cuddyer watched the 100 MPH fastball go down the heart of the plate, and walked off to the dugout not a split second after the ball was in the glove. He knew it was a strike, so I’m curious as to why he didn’t swing. Maybe it was one of those freeze moments where you don’t know what to do? I hope so, because that was bad.
As most of you know, Matt Garza makes his major-league debut on Friday. If anyone is going to the game, it would be sweet if you could save your ticket stub and send it my way.
I’m in the process of switching URLs. I will stay at WordPress.com, but it won’t be frymaster.wordpress.com any more. The new name will be about the Twins, not me. I will post more when the move is complete.
I’d also like to say that I half-called Morneau’s homer last night. He came up to bat, and out loud I said “C’mon Morneau.” In my head I was thinking homerun. I followed that up with a call for Josh Rabe to also hit a dinger, but that telepathic connection failed.
I think the win could be contributed to Ron Gardenhire and his pep talk going into the top of the 8th. He knew Johan had pitched well, so he told the boys they better score some runs so he could get the win.
Boof Bonser was also called up today, and he’ll start in place of Francisco Liriano.
Minnesota Twins talk 
I’m having a little trouble with “Windex” Cuddyer as of late. I really like the guy but he’s making it difficult for me to be his “jock strap” these days. Maybe he should take batting practice with Morneau, or eat the same breakfast as Morneau. I really feel he is very well suited for right field but we need a little more “dinger” action from him at the plate.