After a long, hard-fought season full of injuries and skeptics, the Minnesota Twins are finally in control of their own destiny heading into the home stretch of the 2008 season. On Thursday night, the Twins capped off a sweep in a way that could only be described in one word; epic.
Kevin Slowey got the starting nod for the Twins in what most considered to be the biggest game of the year. Through the first 3 1/3 innings, he was cruising. He got got the first batter of the game, DeWayne Wise to fly out to center on his very first pitch. He then proceded to set down the next nine batters he faced.
That's when he appeared to hit a wall. Orlando Cabrera launched a pitch into left-center field to knot the game at 1. Jermaine Dye singled and Jim Thome followed with a double to center. The ball off the bat of Thome was high enough that both Denard Span and Carlos Gomez could catch up to it, but due to the noise inside the dome, neither heard the other call him off and the collided in mid-air allowing the ball to drop. Paul Konerko then grounded out to short to allow Dye to score and Thome to go to third with two outs. Slowey then walked Ken Griffey Jr. on four pitches which made it first and third. Alexei Ramirez came up and hit a soft grounder to Brian Buscher which should've ended the inning, but Buscher couldn't get it out of his glove which allowed Thome to score, Griffey to second and Ramirez to reach safely. Next was A.J. Pierzynski who was greeted with a wave of boos. Slowey got ahead quickly 0-2 and A.J. fouled off four straight pitches. Then a fastball from Slowey ran up and in which succeeded to nail Pierzynski in the left shoulder to fill the bases. Juan Uribe came up next and lined a pitch straight back up the middle which caught the wrist of Kevin Slowey. Slowey tried to come off the mound and make the throw to first but it was way off course and was then bound for right field which allowed all three runs to score and Uribe to go to third. Slowey had to leave the game and was replaced by Matt Guerrier who got Wise to strike out swinging to end the inning.
It appeared as though the damage had been as the Twins now found themselves in a 6-1 hole. But the Twins still seemed to believe they could pull the comeback, and with 43,601 people going crazy for them, who was to say they couldn't?
They went straight to work in the bottom half of the fourth. Delmon Young struck out to lead off the inning, Buscher followed with a walk, and Nick Punto flew out to left, but not deep enough to advance Buscher. The inning appeared to be over. That's when Carlos Gomez came up in search of redemption for the miscue by lining his first of two triples down the left field line allowing Buscherto score. Span then followed with a double which cut the lead to 6-3.
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