Joe Mauer goes 4-for-4, Glen Perkins pitches 6 pretty good innings, Cuddyer and Crede return to the lineup and get 2 hits each, Gomez and Delmon stay in the lineup and get 2 hits each, everyone in the lineup gets on base, R.A. Dickey pitches two scoreless and uneventful innings. That happens and I can chuckle at grounding into five double plays and a home run allowed to Nyjer Morgan, who flipped his bat afterward like a guy hitting the 200th of his career instead of his 2nd.

Pretty straightforward night at the Metrodome, beating a team that should be beaten.

With two months down and four to play, some people seem to be bored with what’s going on and are looking for hidden meaning in the words of others. A post about the Cubs gets interpreted as backhanded compliments to Twins players, for example. And people complaining about why the Twins didn’t have Denard Span diagnosed and disabled more quickly.

Medical diagnosis from afar is one of the better forms of comedy in the blogosphere, almost as good as when teams try to obfuscate and dissemble when talking about the health of their players. Those twin evils probably deserve each other. Joe Crede’s going to miss more games that Justin Morneau. Deal with it. I’d rather question why Crede bats fourth against lefties when he hasn’t homered off a lefty since 2006.

And short of getting a middle infielder in a trade, I’m trying to figure out why so many people can’t settle down and let Nick Punto play second base for now. I’m glad he’s not playing shortstop and I wish that Alexi Casilla presented a better option, but it seems Punto is the least bad of the choices right now.

Really, the Pirates aren’t going to leave Freddy Sanchez behind when they bolt town. Not this week.

I like second-guessing as much as the next blogger. I prefer when we get out ahead of things, but I’m not above a few healthy huhs? during a week of baseball. That’s one of the best parts of the game, all the more when you feel like those issues aren’t being addressed to your satisfaction elsewhere. The challenge is to turn new ground instead of walking the same terrain over and over … and knowing when the spooky things are only in your imagination.

One more thing: Joe Mauer’s .429 batting average and .497 on-base percentage through 185 plate appearances. You’re not imagining that.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 10:12 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.