Minnesota Twins Win by Inches: Justin Morneau and Co. Edge Tampa Bay Rays

When they say it’s a game of inches, it’s out of frustration. You could keep a tally in most any game, but tonight as the Twins host the Rays there’s all too much proof that baseball accomplishments are measured in millimeters.

In the first inning last night, Evan Longoria set the Rays on their winning trajectory with a home run ripped to left. Tonight, facing Francisco Liriano, Longoria puts his heart and soul into another giant fly ball, but this one falls just inside the foul pole.

Just inside as in better look at that replay a couple times. Yep, foul ball. On the next pitch, Longoria strikes out. Inches.

In the bottom of the first, Denard Span leads off with a walk he coaxes out of James Shields crumb by crumb.

Justin Morneau is up with one out and sends a ball just beyond the wall in left center. As it sails over the fielder’s glove, just a little bit longer than the ballpark, the hit is like a Christmas gift that doesn’t fit in the wrapping paper. Inches. And a 2-0 lead.

In the fifth, the Rays mount a threat. Willy Aybar leads off with a double and advances to third on a groundout. Dioneer Navarro pokes a ball toward Nick Punto at shortstop. Nine times out of ten, a shortstop will have to concede the run and make the safe out at first.

But Aybar hesitates just a fraction of a second and Punto’s throw to Jose Morales nails him. Morales stands tall, still holding the ball after Aybar’s attempt at a crash landing. Bonus: the next hitter, Jason Bartlett, gets a single to left that would have scored Aybar if he’d held up, but the Rays end up with nothing in the inning. Inches and seconds.

The Rays score two in the sixth to tie it, and do not resort to mere inches to do so. A walk, a double from Longoria, and a sac fly combine to deprive Liriano of a shutout.

The Twins end the threat by picking off a runner who ventures too far from first. On the pickoff, Carlos Pena has no choice but try to make it to second, but he’s tagged out. Inches!

Just as the Rays climb back in the game, James Shields has his own bad encounter with a couple of inches. He has looked sharp since the first, and the tie should give him a great lift, but he intersperses two outs with loading the bases.

There are all those looming Twins out there, and Shields blunders big: he hits Brian Buscher with a pitch to send him to first and a runner to the plate. Twins lead 3-1, on the inches it took to brush Buscher’s right arm.

Eighth inning, Twins hanging on to a 3-2 lead. Jason Kubel motors hard to first after hitting an innocuous grounder. Ah, but the ball skids a bit and Carlos Pena can’t make the play at first. Kubel is on base, breathing hard, safe on Pena’s error of, naturally, inches.

Next up, Joe Crede. Does he miss a two-run homer by feet or inches? Depends on where you measure—the ball is foul by a hearty number of feet, but a fraction of an inch in the swing would have sent it fair. Crede flies out on the next pitch.

Now Cuddyer’s up while Delmon Young is in to run for Kubel. The Rays, in the person of reliever Troy Percival, try a pickoff, but the inches here almost always favor the runner and Young stays safe.

Percival uncorks a wild pitch (how many inches does that take?) and Young scoots to second. Cuddyer eventually turns this at-bat into a walk.

The Twins want to accomplish something, as a one-run lead is never particularly soothing, so when Brian Buscher is up with two on, an RBI is top of his to-do list. Percival has other plans, and strikes him out.

Two gone for Jose Morales, who fouls a few off and then watches Percival try a pitchout to gain a few inches on a runner. No dice, runners stick. But Delmon Young and/or the coaching crew get a brilliant idea and on the next pitch send Young off to third. Dioneer Navarro throws him out. Inches all inning long, and no runs score.

In the top of the ninth, Joe Nathan arrives to attempt his fourth save of the season. First pitch, first batter, forget the inches—it’s a straight up home run for Ben Zobrist to deep right. Game tied, Nathan cowed, fans quiet.

Nathan spends the rest of the inning scaring us further. He goes deep in the count on every batter, but collects two outs. Then there’s a truly frightening sequence of three straight balls to light-hitting Akinori Iwamura, leading to a single. The Rays may want to end all this mere inches stuff and take home a flat-out win.

Nathan faces BJ Upton. Upton has almost been coming back to life in this series against the Twins. After a miserable start to the season, he hit a bit yesterday and collected a walk today. Nathan doesn’t need to be especially wary of Upton, but this evening he’s missing the strike zone every chance he gets. He walks him.

Carl Crawford is up, and suddenly Nathan snaps back into form. It’s absolutely distinct, like the true Joe has returned. Crawford grounds out to second, and every pitch from Nathan drives him toward that weak groundball out. Five batters he can barely control and then Nathan is back. Was his release point off by, um, inches?

The Twins have a tie game on their hands, and home field advantage. Considering how much has been by inches tonight, it doesn’t feel like we’re in walk-off homer territory, not least because we resume the batting order with Jose Morales. JP Howell pitches for the Rays and he tries to baffle and confuse, but Morales buys himself a single.

Nick Punto does his GI job and sacrifices Morales to second. Denard Span likes to keep the small ball small and produces an infield single that requires inches and luck to foil the fielders.

Men on first and third for Brendan Harris, pinch hitting for Casilla. Howell is not looking especially comfortable with all these baserunners orbiting his diamond and he lets loose a wild pitch that moves Span to second. By definition, inches.

Harris walks, his greatest contribution getting us all the way to Morneau in the batting order. We can return to imagining a boomer walk-off, but the bases are so stuffed that with one out any kind of contact might be enough as long as the double play isn’t part of it.

But what is Morneau anyway? Not an inches guy! Forget that homer in the first that barely made it; it’s time to blast one.

Morneau, it must be said, has built his power hitting skills on taking what’s actually given him. Unlike some of the great home run hitters, Morneau inspects what the pitcher’s dishing out and doesn’t try to meet every offering with one mighty uppercut swing.

And tonight Morneau shunts a little ground ball toward the infield that has double play written all over it. Indeed, Harris is thrown out at second while Morneau runs hard toward first. Morneau is a fine athletic specimen, but speed is not in his arsenal.

The throw is heading toward first, even as Morales keeps rumbling on toward the plate. Inches, inches, inches...and Morneau is safe. He beats the throw, the run counts, the Twins win.

Centuries of baseball and the diamond is still the exact right size.