Brian Duensing's Complete Game Shutout on the Fourth of July Is One to Remember

As I sat in the press box in Target Field having received my first media credential from the Minnesota Twins, I could help but to recall going to games as a child.

Sure, the venue was different, but the Brians and Michaels and Dannys of today have replaced the Jacks and Kirbys and Kents of my youth, but they are still running bases, throwing strikes and hitting home runs.

The biggest difference is that they can see fly balls now that a giant white bubble isn’t blocking the beautiful Minnesota sky.

I couldn’t have asked for a better game to watch.

Brian Duensing pitched a gem in the 7-0 victory.

“I thought Duensing was just super,” said manager Ron Gardenhire after the game. “I’m probably going to talk about him a lot.”

The third-year pitcher ran into some trouble early in the game, but back-to-back double plays in the first and second innings got him out of trouble.

“His performance spoke for itself,” said Gardenhire. “First couple of guys get on and kinda buckled down. Battled through the first three or four innings,…but after that he really cruised.”

Danny Valencia and Michael Cuddyer had great games as well, both hitting home runs, but immediately praised Duensing’s outing before describing their performances.

“Brian had a big day,” said Valencia before describing his day and the mid-season turnaround he is experiencing. “I can’t say enough good things about the way he pitched today.”

“The story today was Duensing,” said Cuddyer. “Any time we can get a complete game shutout, all we’ve got to do is score one and that was the story today.”

Valencia, a second-year player who experienced the sophomore slump early in the season, could have easily relished in the spotlight and used his first sentence to tell everyone that he proved the doubters wrong.

He did, in fact, address his turnaround this season, but economized his words.

“I’ve felt pretty good the entire year,” he said, “just had some tough luck here and there.”

He didn’t, however, apologize for his three-run home run that extended the eighth inning and may have kept Duensing, who had thrown 109 pitches at that point.

When asked if he was worried that he had ended Duensing’s afternoon, Valencia simply answered: “No. Not at all.”

His answer may be rooted, partially, in egotism, but most likely was a result of his confidence in his manager.

“After [Valencia’s] three-run homer [Duensing] had kind of a long inning,” Gardenhire told the media. “He said he was going back out there so that was good by us.”

Simple as that.

Duensing was happy with his performance, but also self-critical.

“I was real excited how it turned out,” he said. “It didn’t start out as well as I would have wanted it to, but the defense made some unbelievable plays and kept me in it.”

He walked four batters early in the game, but also produced seven strikeouts—a lofty number for a ground ball pitcher.

“I was thinking ‘[Don’t] walk guys,’” he said regarding the strikeouts. “They were just swinging and missing.

“I don’t think I have that good of stuff so every time I strike somebody out I feel like it’s an accident.”

Duensing’s answer may be rooted in his reputation as an underdog.

A third-round pick out of the University of Nebraska, his picture on his Wikipedia page is from his days in the minor leagues and his “Early Life” bio states simply, “He was born in 1983, the same year as his teammate, catcher Joe Mauer.”

Last time I checked, he and Mauer were not the only two people born in 1983.

Regardless of the origins of his answer, his teammates love him for it.

“He’s a glass-half-empty type of guy,” said Cuddyer, “but that’s what you love about him, he’s humble. He goes out there, he battles, he competes and he’s the guy you definitely like calling your teammate.”

I certainly couldn’t have asked for a better performance in my first Twins game as a credentialed media member.

The game offered everything I could have asked for.

To say that I never thought I would cut it as a sports journalist would be cliché.

To say that, on the day of my first game, at age one, I knew following my newfound passion would lead to a great future would be absurd.

However, it is not far-fetched to think that the little Tom Schreier who sat and watched his first game in the stands of the Metrodome would be proud of the one that sat in the press box of Target Field 21 years later.

I’m living the American Dream.

It’s quite fitting that I realized it on the Fourth of July.

Tom Schreier is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand or from official interview materials from the Minnesota Twins.