In Anaheim, Torii Hunter hit a two-run homer in the first inning and the Angels went on to beat Detroit 4-2.

In Boston, David Ortiz, homered in the bottom of the ninth — his second of the game — to give Boston a 3-2 victory over the White Sox.

At the Metrodome, the Twins lost and passed on a chance to gain a game in the standings with 35 left to play because the hitters got shut down and Nick Blackburn couldn’t shut down the bottom of the Baltimore batting order, especially the No. 9 guy Chad Moeller.

Maybe you remember Moeller from the stinking years in Minnesota.

He was with the Twins in 2000, getting 128 at-bats, hitting .211 and sharing time behind the plate with Matt Lecroy, Marcus Jensen and some guy named Pierzynski. A career backup, Moeller has since played for a half-dozen other teams and owns a lifetime .224 batting average. In others words, he’s not the guy who should have gotten a double, single and two walks. He’s the guy who should have been retired to end rallies and restore order, kind of what opponents have been able to do to the Twins for most of the season.

So we’ll spend an off day being glum about a missed opportunity instead of talking about the excitement of the chase.

On this date in 2006, the Twins trailed Detroit by five games with 33 to play, overtaking them on the last day of the season. They finished that season by going 20-13 in those final games. So you can create some reason for hope, even if you have absolutely no idea what the starting rotation is going to look like  over these final six weeks.

The next time old friends offer aid, though, the Twins ought not to reject their work.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 9:49 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.