If you love second-guessing — which is really to say, if you love sports, because the two go hand-in-hand — then you loved last night’s Twins game. The bottom of the ninth was the perfect storm of second-guessing. Leading 3-0 and with Nick Blackburn sitting at just 85 pitches, there was decision No. 1: Let him try for the shutout or bring in one of the best closers in baseball? Our mindset, as we pounded out 6-plus miles on the treadmill, was this: give Blackburn a shot in the ninth, but one baserunner and he’s gone. He had already had a shaky eighth in which two runners reached and only a smashed line drive to third base, resulting in a double play, saved the inning. You want to see him finish it off, but you also don’t want to bring a closer in with the tying run at the plate. That’s just a tough situation. So, we thought that when Blackburn plunked the leadoff man with a wayward breaking ball — a tough break, but that’s baseball — he would be gone. Instead, he stayed in and got the next out before getting way too much of the plate with an 0-2 pitch that Miguel Olivo smacked to left for a base hit. At that point, Ron Gardenhire called on Joe Nathan — one batter too late for our tastes, two batters too late for others’ tastes and a batter or two too early for yet others’ tastes. Your thoughts?

Nathan, of course, came in and on the first pitch Mark Teahen hit a slicing fly ball down the left field line. Delmon Young tracked it, then missed a sliding catch as it bounced just fair and past him. He got up, ran after it with the enthusiasm of Mark McGwire testifying before Congress, and by the time he got it home Teahen had scored easily and the game was tied. The first part — the attempt at a sliding catch in that situation — was part physical, part mental error. But at least it was somewhat defensible based on the heat of the moment. What we couldn’t believe was the jog toward the ball. We thought it would be a triple at best; we were flabbergasted, really, when Teahen scored so easily. We knew Gardenhire and Nathan would be seething about the play, which indeed they were. In fact, we kind of wanted the manager to pull his left fielder from the game after the inning was over just to make a statement. It would have been somewhat risky to burn a player going into extra innings, but it would have been warranted. Your thoughts?

Young then came up with the bases loaded after the Twins had gone ahead 4-3 in the 12th and promptly grounded into a double play. Through it all, the Twins still managed to hang on for a victory. We wonder if that was enough for Young to at least sit today. We know Gardenhire is giving him a long rope and that he is learning on the fly, but goodness. That was quite the display last night and not the first time recently the manager has been upset with him. Will Young sit tonight? Should he? Your thoughts.

As always, in thinking through your second-guessing answers, keep in mind the Rules for Second Guessing that we wrote about for the NotTC a couple years ago:

1. Just because something didn’t work doesn’t mean it was the
wrong decision.

2. Just because a team loses doesn’t mean it was the manager’s or coach’s fault.

3. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t think Brad Childress is
a genius when his cautious approach produces narrow victories, and then rip him when it produces narrow losses.

4. Separate physical mistakes from decision-making mistakes.

5. Choose your battles. There are going to be things you can
logically second-guess from virtually every game. … However, when we start to second-guess every little thing, we sound ridiculous. It turns us into whiners who are unable to accept outcomes without assigning blame or making excuses.

What else? Despite not having seen a minute yet of the Eastern Conference finals, we are primed to watch what we firmly believe will be an epic Game 5 tonight. The winner takes the series. No doubt in our mind. … Pacman Jones a step closer to making it rain on the field again? … Doing the math: 43 games times $3 per ticket times two tickets is $258. Divided three ways between us, Roughkat and Brandon, that’s $86 apiece to be one-third holders each in Timberwolves season tickets. Are we glad we did this? Hell, yes. Are we glad we didn’t end up with the whole season’s worth of tickets for $258? Hell, yes.

Fasola-link! The Buffalo Bills, eh?

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