wow, what a game tonight! it was all positive, for sure. nerve racking, definitely. but we beat the twins in minnesota playing their style of ball. pitching well, playing good D, and getting timely hits.

pitching: jeremy sowers, who had just gotten beaten up by the yankees in his last start, entered the seventh with a 3-0 lead. after he walked off the mound at the end of the inning, the game was tied at 3 apiece. after giving up a solo shot on a 3-2 count to tori hunter and giving out his first free pass of the game, i wanted eric wedge to replace him with rafael bentacourt. after giving up a single, i was sure wedgie was going to give the ball to raffy. he did not, and rookie alexi cassila got a turf double that tied it up, after the ball jumped over third baseman casey blake's outstretched glove. jeremy's counterpart, carlos silva, went five innings, giving up three runs on a victor martinez tater. both gave up three runs, but jeremy gave us two more innings. in a pitching and defense battle, cleveland took the first advantage. then the bullpen (fultz, betancourt, and roberto) dominated. five hitless innings, one walk, three strikeouts. minnesota's relief core bended (i am talking about the ninth inning when garko almost had a grand slam with two outs), then broke in the twelfth. even joe nathan pitched tonight. he was brought in to quell the fire; but gave up a walk, a two run single to tanaka (aka shin-soo choo, thanks sean), and threw alot of pitches, 24. so if johan cannot go at least seven innings tomorrow night, once again the edge would default to cleveland. this of course assumes fausto carmona has his second straight strong game.

defense: aside from a grady error (his first) in the three run seventh, we played really tight D. barfield made a really nice play in extra innings. the defense turned three double plays. minnesota did not attempt a stolen base.

clutch hitting: for the second straight night, ryan garko delivered the winning base hit. he helped the tribe take the series from tampa yesterday with a go ahead, ninth inning three run home run. tonight, his second single of the game plated the first run in the the four run twelfth. as much as i liked andy marte and his D at third, the silver lining in his injury is that now garko will be the starting first baseman. even though i am not a fan of casey blake's erratic throws from third, he claimed the stability of having a consistent position will help his offensive game. he somewhat backed that up tonight. he had a single and double in seven AB's. he scored a run, only struck out once, and was robbed of a third hit by nick punto. of course, victor's three run shot got the indians on the board. hafner stayed hot. four hits, two walks (one intentional). and did i mention garko narrowly missed a grand slam in the ninth???

regardless of what happens tomorrow, tonight's win was big. it was the best all around played game by the indians that i have personally viewed this year. against our division rival and league leader, at their home. we got the W, a young jeremy (tonight was just his 18th career start) got a valuable lesson on pitching late in a close game, and we have put ourselves in a good position to win tomorrow nights game and sweep the series. when a team will be facing the best pitcher in baseball, anything you can do to help yourself win in the game prior is a bonus.