First things first.

Open another window on your browser and crank this up. Put on headphones if you’re at work.

Now, that was pretty good last night. The best thing I saw from Nick Blackburn was that when he got into trouble he didn’t back down. He didn’t have great stuff and Joe Mauer did an excellent job of getting him through the second inning with those visits to the mound. As tough as he seems to be, Blackburn’s emotions have sometimes gotten the best of him this season — and that was a concern almost as much as the struggles of his previous two starts. He flat-out manned up and battled (his tail off) through those five innings.

And then the bullpen was Twins Classic, the way we like to remember things from years back. Four innings, one single, one walk. You can chide Bill Smith and his posse all you want for Craig Monroe, Mike Lamb and any of the other acquisitions that trouble you, but taking the chance of Craig Breslow has paid off time and time again. Right guy at the right time to set the right tone for the rest of the game. Back at midseason, who would have guessed that the Twins would play a huge game and the two lefties out of the time would be Breslow and Jose Mijares?

And if Breslow isn’t enough, give them credit for the Mijares call-up. From Class AA ball to the XXL pressure of the title chase. It was impressive enough that he rallied from that 3-and-0 count to get Jim Thome last night, but what was just as impressive to me was the way he locked up the next batter — right-handed Paul Konerko — with his breaking ball and change-up before getting him to ground out to second. This is more than a lefty one-out guy (LOOGY).

OK, let’s talk about the possible postseason for a second: There are people who’ve expressed concern that Mijares wouldn’t be eligible for the playoff roster.  My understanding of the rules is that he could well be added, owing to what USA Today’s Mel Antonen has called the “K-Rod Clause.” The quick version: If a team has a player eligible for the postseason who is hurt and can’t play, it can get permission from the commissioner’s office to replace him on the postseason roster with a player who was in the minors with that team as of August 31 and is still with the organization at the end of the season.

Players on the disabled list as of August 31 are among those eligible for postseason play. The rules require that a pitcher be swapped out for a pitcher and a position player for a position player.

Can you say Pat Neshek?

In 2002, Francisco Rodriguez played a crucial role for the Angels in the postseason  even though he only pitched 5 2/3 innings after being called up in midseason. The Angels had a player on their roster who had been out the entire 2002 season with a shoulder injury. That’s how K-Rod got his spot and tortured the Twins, among others, in that year’s postseason.

And that’s how the Twins could get Mijares on the postseason roster.

And if someone does manage to hit a fly ball went into the gap, Mijares will have the benefit of knowing that Carlos Gomez can down anything. I mean, I’ve only watched this about a dozen times last night and this morning. As cool as the catch may be, you totally need to check out the looks on the faces of No. 12 and Ozzie after Gomez ran it down

Here, watch it again.

I contend, yet again, that everything that pained the Twins about Gomez during the season is paying off in the season’s final month.

And now, tonight. (First, though, crank this one up in the other browser.)

I know that people were most nervous about last night’s match-up, but don’t take the White Sox lightly. Gavin Floyd is 16-8 and can flat-out pitch, as the Twins have seen several times this season. He pitched (and lost) on short rest over the weekend in Kansas City so he could start the final game of this series.

Of course, when Kevin Slowey last pitched against the White Sox, he shut ‘em out on six hits.

There’s no easy way out this time of the season, and that’s how it should be. But one thing is for sure: The Twins won’t back down.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 9:34 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.