Meh. (Game 1)

I suppose that game was a trife disappointing. We lost. But there were several positive things to come from last night’s game against the Angels.

#1 Delmon Young. He homered triumphantly in his first at bat to tie the score, showing some of the power we all wish he would actually have (And to be fair, it went 401 feet). It was during this at bat that I noticed he seemed a good bit thinner. I guess I was a little behind on the news, as Dick and Bert then informed me it was 30 pounds he lost. That’s a lotta meat. But the really impressive thing was seeing him leg out an infield hit. If he starts getting those on a regular basis, he’ll be a .300 hitter. It all depends on if he’s going to add the power (Because face it, he’s not going to ever be selective). Then he goes and steals a base off of Jered Weaver (Awesome pickoff move) and Jeff Mathis (Awesome arm)? That’s legit, even if it was a curveball. In conclusion,  I have optimism about Delmon Young for the first time since around May 2008.

#2 O Dawg and Hardy both seemed comfortable, and played good games. Hudson had a monstrous double in the third, Hardy had a sharp single leading off the 7th, and got the job done moving Young over to third in the 5th (I’m aware that getting “high fives all around” for hitting a ground ball to the right side with a runner on 2nd is a waste of an out, but in this case, it ended up tying the score, and you could tell Hardy did it on purpose). Hudson made an amazing stop of a liner up the middle late in the game, even if it resulted in a hit, and, as billed, was smooth going backwards to catch popups.

#3 Scott Baker was antsy early on, but the after his first time through the order he was pretty good. He made a mistake walking Torii in the 5th after the infield single to Aybar, and Hideki Matsui made him pay for it. That happens. I would have left Baker, my ace, defacto or not, finish his mess in the 5th, but that leads me to #4

Jesse Crain was really good. 5 outs, no walks, one strikeout. Much appreciated.

#5 Pat Neskek was just fine. He was fooling hitters just like back in the day, even if he was throwing 87.

#6 Morneau looked alright. He really rifled that bases loaded line drive to end the 7th. Had that gotten through, it would have changed the whole complexion of the game, but that’s baseball, and it’s why I’m even more confident about this team today than I was yesterday. Because..

The offense was good! We just didn’t capitalize on the bases loaded situations. But the point is to give yourself those opportunities as often as you can, and eventually, it will even itself out. Weaver and Jepsen were pretty electric, and credit must be given. Rodney got lucky, and even he knows that.

But there were a few bad notes.

Jose Mijares looked fat and awful. I have a feeling he won’t be with the team much longer.

Jason Kubel took some bad at bats.

Joe Mauer didn’t hit a home run even though I was wearing his jersey!

But all will be well. The Halos are a good team.