A game like this one is why baseball rules. Hits sprayed all over the Metrodome… bodies falling left and right… Parts of the game when the offenses were dominant… Flashes of brilliant relief and flashes of relief that looked like they came from the escape-artist’s handbook.

And then there was the bottom of the ninth.

Review and comment:

Delmon Young leads off with a ground ball single off Jonathan Papelbon. You had to be concerned that Young was going to be overmatched and fall for split-fingered fastballs dipping into the dirt. But his plate discipline has been improving in spots, and he has been sending more balls up the middle and to right-center. His lack of power is troubling many people, but if he’s trying to figure out how to become a hitter instead of a swinger, a decrease in power may be something we’ll have to live with for a spell. Batting him seventh takes off some pressure and I think, eventually, he’s going to be a better hitter and the home runs will return. (Gotta do something about his judgment on balls hit to the wall, though. Better defense in the fifth on his part would have saved us all some angst.)

Matt Tolbert comes up. Down by a run, bottom of the ninth. Baseball wisdom: Play for the tie at home. That would call for a bunt. I’m muttering under my breath because putting a guy on second for Adam Everett and Gogomez doesn’t seem like a winning idea, or much of a tying proposition.

Gardy disagrees. Tolbert sacrifices. Young takes second. One out.

Everett is overmatched by Papelbon and hits a meek foul pop to Kevin Youkilis, who I want on my team. Two runs, runner on second.

Gogomez up. Ms. Baseball has nodded off because it’s been a long week. My anticipation of what’s going to happen next leads me not to wake her up by whispering, “Runner on second, two outs, bottom of nine, still down by 1, Gogomez batting.”

If you tell me you were oozing confidence, you’re lying.

Young steals third without the Red Sox making a fuss over him. Obviously, he knew he could make it. I think it’s a good move.

Gogomez falls behind 1-and-2 and then takes a pitch way high, a pitch outside and in the dirt and a low pitch. He draws a walk!!! That’s his fourth walk of the season in 131 plate appearances and, I suspect, a walk he wouldn’t have drawn a couple of weeks ago.

Mike Lamb, who came in after Brendan Harris’ hammy got tweaked, steps up. Dick-on-TV opines that Gogomez will probably stay at first so that Youkilis has to hold him on and Lamb has more room to swing for on the right side of the infield.

On the next pitch, Gogomez steals.

The Twins have veered from playing for a tie to playing for a win — providing Lamb gets a hit.

Papelbon throws hard and gets ahead 1-and-2. Then, he doinks a soft, looping single into shallow left. (For those of you who had to listen on the radio, the hometown call of a “line drive” was a tad overstated. Really, about 100,000 tads.) Young trots home, Gomez takes a celebratory slide into the plate and there’s a party on the field.

There is cheering. Ms. Baseball wakes up. She is thrilled, both for the winning hit and for what she likes to term the “celebratory man love” that followed.

Replays and interviews are watched. Lamb answers questions in a way that makes you want him to be the hero more often.

The night’s final hero, Lamb is now batting .213. Jesse Crain, who wriggled through the ninth while allowing two singles, got the win after Dennys Reyes gave up two singles before getting the final out in the eighth. There were 107 other things you could dissect about this one, but the bottom of the ninth is why baseball is really “the beautiful game.”

Sorry, soccer.

And to steal another phrase: We’ll see you tomorrow night!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 12:21 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.