Jersey of Fortune Update

Behold the mystical powers of the Jersey of Fortune!

Actually, we've fallen on hard times with the Jersey recently, as the Twins have lost the last 3 outings. Looking over the games in question, I seem to only wear the Jersey when the Twins are on the road. We may have to mix it up a bit going forward.

Torii Hunter is absolutely crushing the ball in games where I wear the Jersey. Although if I am in attendance at the actual park he must get nervous or something. Otherwise how do you explain the 0 for 6 with 3 SO and 2 BB in games I have attended this season? When I wear the Jersey in the comfort of my living room he's an otherworldly .545/.583/1.455. That's an OPS of 2.038!

Twins record with jersey of fortune: 2-3

Torii Hunter with the Jersey of Fortune: 6 for 17, .353/.450/.941,
1 2B, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 3 BB, 5 SO, 1 SB

Home Runs w/ JoF
Hunter 3
Morneau 2
Cuddyer 1

Starters
Bonser 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 SO
Santana 13.0 IP, 4 ER, 15 SO
Baker 5.2 IP, 5 ER, 4 SO
Ortiz 4.1 IP, 5 ER, 2 SO

I have worn the Jersey for five games (the conditions have to be just right... or else I just forget). They are :

BAL 4 @ MIN 7
MIN 3 @ CWS 1
MIN 3 @ TB 4
MIN 5 @ MIL 6
MIN 1 @ LAA 5

Twins 3, Sox 1

The family was in town, so we spent our Easter down at US Cellular Field watching Johan Santana deal to the Sox.

First of all, the weather wasn't half bad. I spent all week fretting that we'd be freezing our tails off, but then it turned out to be cold, but not unbearable. We sat in the left field bleachers in the sun and it was actually pretty nice.

The fans ran the gamut, some of those who sat around us were great, willing to chat about the Twins' bullpen, Jim Thome, or whatever. Unfortunately, directly to our right in the bleachers was an extremely vocal group of Sox fans. I have no problem with enthusiastic cheering, I've even partaken in my fair share. But, that refers to support of your team or a little bit of jeering of the opposing players. One guy in particular in this group regaled us with chants that ranged from the standard "Twins suck" nearly every inning, to instructing Twins' fans to "drown in Lake Huron" (I don't know why that particular non-Minnesota/non-Chicago lake). I don't want to devolve into a rant here, but this, unfortunately, became a significant part of the experience today. We even had the aforementioned "good" fans turn around and apologize for some of the ruder comments. Making all this considerably more tolerable was the fact that the Twins were winning the baseball game.

Ah yes, the game. In the middle of the game 24 batters, from Bartlett's second K in the fourth to Punto's flyout in the eighth were all retired in order. Twins or White Sox batter, it didn't matter, they all went down. Which was nice for a cold day, once we had the lead, clearly the goal was to just get out of there.

A couple of thoughts:

- Santana with the win, Nathan with the save, 2 for 2 so far. Santana settled down after walking 3 in the first 1.1 IP, retiring the last 17 batters he faced. Nathan also settled down after giving up two hits, retiring the last batter he faced for the save.

- Cuddyer went 3 for 6 in the abbreviated series, which was good, but the baserunning blunder Saturday still kills me.

- Mauer + Cuddyer + Morneau (5 for 11, HR, BB, 3 R, 3 RBI). Everyone else (1 for 22, BB, 6 K). Thanks Justin!

- Morneau has hit both of his homeruns off of lefties this season. Also he's hit both while I was wearing the Jersey of Fortune.

Speaking of which:

Twins record with jersey of fortune: 2-0
Torii Hunter with the Jersey of Fortune: 2 for 8, .250/.250/.750, 1 HR 2 RBI

Twins 7, O's 4

It's all my fault. It was the top of the fourth, when I realized that it was time to medicate my cat. No, that's not a euphemism for anything; my cat, Bruno, has a scratched cornea and he requires eye drops once or twice a day. I don't know if anyone else has ever tried to administer eye drops to a squirming cat, but I recommend it if you ever have a dull evening. Anyway, my attention was distracted from the baseball at hand whilst I chased Bruno around the apartment and by the time I looked up, the lead had evaporated. So, again, mea culpa.


However, the rest of the game was very nicely played by Minnesota. The clean up guys cleaned up (Morneau, Hunter - 2 HR 4 RBI), Mauer got on base (1-3, BB), The small guys at the top and bottom ran all over the place (Tyner, Castillo, Punto (4 H, 3 R).

A couple of notes:

-- Win for Santana, Save for Nathan, the first of many times I will write that this season

-- Morneau gets 3 hits against an above average left-handed starter. I like it a lot.

-- The bullpen looked great tonight (+points to Reyes, Crain, Rincon, and Nathan)

-- Cuddyer fouled off a lot of pitches, battling? or just not quite clicking?

-- I'm not even slightly concerned about Santana (9.0 K/9, he's fooling people)

Most importantly, Monday represented the debut of the Jersey of Fortune which shall be worn by me whenever I feel it's appropriate:

Twins record with the Jersey of Fortune: 1-0
Torii Hunter with the Jersey of Fortune: .500/.500/1.500, 1 HR 2 RBI