Thank goodness the baserunner in this photograph is not A-Rod. Otherwise, we’d probably never hear the end of it:
Instead, this play is probably doomed to be forgotten because (a) it had no effect on the final score, (b) nobody got hurt, (b) the Twins turned the double play anyway. How exactly Luis "Joe Montana" Castillo managed to release the ball over the head of Jack "Too Tall" Cust and into the hands of Justin "Clark caught a touchdown" Morneau in time to turn the 4-3 double play, I’ll never quite understand.
What will be remembered from this game is the performance of Joe Blanton. Blanton had had two rocky outings since becoming the victim a triple-whammy curse placed on him when (a) Ryan gave him some solid Catfish Stew praise, (b) Rob Neyer spread that praise by (subscribers-only) linking to it on ESPN.com, and (c) Ryan followed up his praise by attending his next start. Let this be a lesson to you all: no good can ever come of such optimistic behavior.
Fortunately, I am happy to report that I was able reverse that whammy by attending Saturday’s game, and saying nothing of it or my expections about Joe Blanton to anyone in advance. As a result, Blanton pitched a three-hit, complete game shutout. You may all thank me in the comments below.
Blanton was masterful today, with great control of all of his pitches. Combine Blanton’s sharpness with Carlos Silva pitching at his ground-ball inducing best (including the one that started the double play above), and you had a recipe for one of the fastest games I’ve ever seen: one hour and 48 minutes. The two pitchers were so good today that they not only removed all the fireworks from the two teams’ offenses (the game’s only run scored on, yes, a double play), they kept fireworks out of the sky as well. The game was over so fast, we had to wait for a full hour after the game for the sky to get dark enough to begin the scheduled post-game fireworks show.
I’ve been pretty busy with travel and work stuff lately, and I have some more busy times coming soon, but I shall try to squeeze in some more whammy-reversing whenever I can. I haven’t even been able to get in any player fasting or anything this year. Travis Buck and Milton Bradley both left the game early with (guess what?) ailments of some sort. I can only do so much. But does this team need me, or what?
1. Also, I'm not sure: is the umpire shooting Cust or Castillo with his finger gun?
2. Thanks.
3. Or if it were Mike Lowell, then it would be something to be praised. See: front cover of today's Boston Herald.
4. That is the Casilla everyone has been waiting for.
5. Yeah, Lowell really leveled Cano, didn't he?
Didn't one of Mark Mulder's trademark lightning-fast games also force people to sit around and wait for a fireworks show?
6. Let's see...Cust is clearly out of the base line so doesn't that automatically make it a double play even if the batter beats the throw (similar to going out of the base line after a fielder turning the double play at the bag) ??? On the other hand, if Cust was not called out for being out of the base line, how would he be out since Castillo appears to have released the ball prior to having tagged out Cust ???
7. 6 It looks bad because you assume from this shot that Cust is moving forwards, but actually he's going sideways and pulling his arms up to try to avoid being tagged. But he would have been better off jumping to his right than to his left, because Castillo's momentum was taking him in that direction as well. Castillo tagged him and then threw over him (with both players moving towards the infield together), but how he managed to do accomplish that is a minor miracle.
8. Correctomundo on your assumption of my assumption. And it makes it all the more remarkable that Castillo was able to get enough on the throw to get it to first in time. Who was the batter ???
BTW, as I write this, Mark Ellis just singled to complete his cycle. Very cool !!! Even extra-inning cycles deserve major kudos.