An interesting night that the Twins seemed to handle well, probably better than a lot of us who were watching when Delmon Young brain-cramped and went diving for the fly ball that he turned into a game-tying inside-the-park homer. My suggestion for Delmon is to make a trip to the hotel gift shop this morning and buy a few of those overpriced cards — a couple of the “I’m sorry” variety for Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Nathan, and the biggest “Thank You” card he can find to slip under Mr. Cuddyer’s door for the single that finally ended it all.
As Joe C’s reports in his game story and his blog, there was more than a little clubhouse unease even though the Twins managed to rebound and win, a game that should have been over in nine innings with Blackburn’s excellence being the center of attention instead of in 12 with Young’s foible dominating. I’m glad that Delmon owned up to his blunder to Joe C. and that Nathan was able to make his distress clear without throwing him under the Prius, even though that would have made good material for the rest of us.
Should Delmon have gone diving?
Bert’s initial response turned out, rightly, to be the minority view: “Do you dive for it or do you go after the ball? Aggressiveness says to dive for it.”
Sometimes, Mr. Aggressiveness is a fool.
“Well, you know what,” Bert continued. “On that play right there by Delmon Young, if he stays back on that ball, that ball may have done the same thing anyway. He had to go over there….”
Later, Bert concluded by saying, “I don’t know what else Young could have done.”
Uh, really?
Watching that, part of me was imagining Blyleven-the-pitcher watching that scene in the left-field corner unraveling one of his well-pitched games that went for naught back in the day. Bert expected competence from his teammates and he could demand it because he was so good and because nobody was tougher on Blyleven than Blyleven.
Because Ron Coomer answered completely and correctly during the FSN postgame, I figure his explanation is the best way to deal with what happened and why it shouldn’t have gone down that way. Coomer started by pointing out that the Twins outfielders were basically playing not to give up an extra-base hit, which is what he meant when he used the term “no doubles.”
Over to you, Ron.
“The bottom line is you’re playing ‘no doubles’ and the object of playing ‘no doubles’ is to not let the ball go past you. The one thing that Tom Kelly had in his office was a Superman shirt with a ‘buster’ through it. This play right here, for Delmon, I know he’s hustling, but this is the exact opposite of what you want to do. Play that ball into a double, that’s OK. You’ll have runners on second and third and you’re still up by two runs and you throw the ball back in. When you make the dive, you’ve got to at least knock the ball down. Now you’ve got big trouble, an inside-the-park home run. I mean, Joe (Nathan) throws one pitch and gives up three runs. That was a bad play.”
Later, in response to another LaPanta question, Coomer reiterated: “There’s no reason to try to make that diving catch. Just play the ball in the corner, throw the ball in and you still have the lead and you have the best guy in baseball to close it out.”
In Gardy’s post-game press gathering, he made a wan attempt to credit Delmon with hustle, but added: “I’m having a hard time with this one because I’m so disappointed. You can’t leave your feet in left field in that situation.”
Left unaddressed was Delmon’s jog to retrieve the ball after it rolled away and to the wall, which compounded the audacity of his hopeless dive. Nathan clearly wasn’t thrilled, based on his body language when Delmon tried to say something to him in the dugout.
But enough about that.
It seems proper, at this point, to call your attention to a comment left yesterday by Carlos G., who wrote in response to my criticism of the Twins’ corner outfielders: “It would seem almost a ‘lock’ with this blog from Howard that Cuddy and DY are in for a huge series against KC. Thanks Howard”
Well, Carlos, at least I got Cuddyer straightened out last night: 3-for-6, diving catch, game-winning hit. I’m not sure I can do anything about Delmon, though. Keep in mind that his fielding antics overshadowed an 0-for-6 at the plate, including grounding into a double play with the bases loaded and one out after Cuddyer’s single.
Maybe they should remake that commercial where “young Mr. Young” seeks advice from the Holy Twinity of Oliva, Carew and Killebrew.
What do you think they’d tell him today?
other people are here too
