Good defense can lift a team.
Denard Span provided such a lift when he jumped at the fence to take a hit away from Alex Rios in the fifth inning. Span raced about 40 yards back and to his right and timed his jump perfectly. As the fans cheered, Span pounded his chest twice and then tipped his cap as fan continued to applaud.
Righthander Cole De Vries, who threw the pitch, bent over at the waist and smiled at his good fortune. In the dugout, Samuel Deduno and Alexi Casilla applauded. Later, Ryan Doumit told manager Ron Gardenhire, "I had the best view."
"That pumped up the whole dugout," Gardenhire said.
Span came back in the seventh to make a falling catch of A.J. Pierzynski's sinking liner.
Span was 2-for-3 at the plate but was thrown out in the seventh when he tried to stretch a single into a double. Alex Rios has a great arm in right, and he got a nice carom off the wall before throwing a perfect strike to second to get Span by a hair.
There was some debate about if Span should have went for it. I had no problem with it. It took a perfect throw.
"He had to go there," Gardenhire said. "I would have been disappointed if he didn't."
