Tonight was a sportswriter’s nightmare. My story for the first edition was ready to go, but the Twins weren’t. Three walks and two hits later the outcome was exactly the opposite of the path my initial story went.

REWRITE!

Then a couple of the heroes from the game took a while to pop out for interviews. Didn’t get back to the computer until 10:45. I’m pretty sure I heard Ken, the Star Tribune copy editor, mutter not-so-nice things about me when I called after sending the final version came in. Sorry, Ken.

Who saw that game coming? Brendan  Brandon Morrow had two outs in the ninth with Carlos, `Go-Go for the fences,’ Gomez at the plate. Gomez claimed all spring that he was more patient at the plate, and his quality at-bat on Tuesday set that inning up.

“I think he’s made a big effort to have good at-bats instead of giving away at-bats,” Denard Span said.

Suddenly, Morrow couldn’t throw a strike. Just read last week how he had decided that he would be a closer and not a starter. Happy baptism, kid.

Alexi Casilla really looks calm in big situations. That’s three times since mid-September in which he’s come through:

Sept. 18: Two-run homer in the ninth off of Tampa Bay’s Dan Wheeler that led to a 11-8 win.

Sept: 25: RBI single off Bobby Jenks in the tenth to be the White Sox in the game of the year.

Tuesday: Two-run single in the ninth to beat the Mariners.

Mike Redmond and his pulled groin muscle was going to hobble out to the field to catch the tenth if the game had been tied. And get this: Twins manager Ron Gardenhire had told R.A. Dickey to get ready to play in the field if an emergency situation.

“Gardy told me to get my spikes on.” Dickey said. “I was going to go out there and Babe Ruth it. Yesterday, I was the bullpen coach (in place of the ill Rick Stelmaszek). Today I was going to be the right fielder (if needed). This is a heck of an organization.”

One minor league note: Jeff Manship starts for New Britain on Wednesday in the season opener. The other teams open on Thursday. Will have more stuff tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Random thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.