Game #4 - Baseball Fraternity Mourns One of Its Own

Nick Adenhart, RIP. A shocking and senseless tragedy for his family and friends and the Angels organization. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family.

Wasting a tremendous pitching performance by Glen Perkins Thursday, the Twins could get nothing started against Seattle's Jarrod Washburn, losing the series finale 2-0 and falling into a series split with the Mariners. Seattle scored single runs in the 1st and 9th innings, and Washburn scattered 5 hits over 8 innings, striking out 5. Adrian Beltre and Wladimir Balentien each had two hits for the Mariners, while Brendan Harris was the only Twin with more than one hit.

Perkins was outstanding over 8 innings, giving up one run on five hits, striking out four. After allowing a leadoff hit to Balentien in the 4th inning, Perkins allowed only one baserunner the rest of the way. He was simply outstanding throughout.

Miscellaneous notes:

• The Twins and Mariners played all four games error-free
• Delmon Young struggled again Thursday with an 0-3, swinging at the first pitch his first two at-bats. Patience is not in his vocabulary.
• Luis Ayala allowed another insurance run in the 9th inning today, the second such outing in which this has occurred.

Up next, at the Chicago White Sox:

• Friday (7:11pm) - R.A. Dickey vs. Jose Contreras - Let's see how the knuckler dances in the cool Chicago night
• Saturday (3:05pm) - Francisco Liriano vs. Bartolo Colon
• Sunday (1:05pm) - Nick Blackburn vs. Mark Buehrle

Around the AL Central:

• Toronto 6, Detroit 2 - The Blue Jays won the match-up between two highly-touted rookie starting pitchers, with the Jays' Ricky Romero out-dueling Detroit's Rick Porcello. Both were making their major league debuts in this one, and Romero was solid, scattering 7 hits in 6 innings, while allowing 2 runs and striking out 5 Tigers. Porcello went 5 innings, allowed 9 hits and 4 runs. These are two guys you'll hear a lot from in the future.
• Texas 12, Cleveland 8 - First Cliff Lee; then Fausto Carmonan now Carl Pavano. The Tribe's third starter was lit up for 9 runs in 1+ innings, and the Rangers overcame five Cleveland homers to gain a opening series sweep of the Indians.
• Kansas City 2, Chicago White Sox 1 - After combining for 8 scoreless innings, the Royals outscored the Whities 2-1 in the 9th inning. Coco Crisp hit a two-run shot off Bobby Jenks to give the Royals the series win. Starters Kyle Davies (KC) and John Danks (CWS) were both outstanding.

Around the Minors:

• AAA - Rochester 7, Syracuse 4 - The Red Wings won their opener, hitting four home runs in the game (Dustin Martin, Trevor Plouffe, Luke Hughes, and David Winfree). Jason Pridie, Martin, Plouffe, and Matt Macri all had two hits apiece. Jason Jones started for Rochester (4 IP, 2ER), followed by Bobby Keppel (2 IP, 1 ER), Mike Gosling (1.2 IP, 1 ER), Sean Henn (0.1 IP, 0 R), and Tim Lahey (1 IP, 0 ER, Save).
• AA - New Hampshire 4, New Britain 3 - The Rock Cats dropped to 1-1 on the season, despite home runs from Matt Moses and Rene Tosoni. Jay Rainville started for New Britain and took the loss, giving up three unearned runs in 3 innings.
• High A - Ft. Myers 9, Charlotte 4 - Ft. Myers used a 5-run rally in the top of the 8th inning to break open a 4-4 tie game and win its season opener. Tyler Robinson started for the Miracle but did not make it out of the 2nd inning, but Kyle Waldrop helped steady the ship with 2.1 scoreless innings. Santos Arias and Alex Burnett pitched two scoreless innings apiece, with Burnett fanning 4 hitters in his outing.Chris Parmelee homered for Ft. Myers, and Deibinson Romero and Yangervis Solarte had three hits a piece.
• Low A - Cedar Rapids 7, Beloit 6 (10 innings) - Beloit rallied from a 3-run deficit to tie the game in the 7th and take a 6-4 lead into the bottom of the 9th, but Danny Rondon could not hold the lead, the Cedar Rapids ended up winning the opener in 10 innings. Shooter Hunt started for the Snappers and struggled with his control, walking 4 hitters in 3.1 innings, while allowing 3 hits and 3 runs. James Beresford and Jon Waltenbury had two hits each for Beloit.

Today's musical selection is a flashback to my freshman year at the U of Minnesota.