Great grab hands Twins a win

Marlin Levison, Star Tribune

Delmon Young scored the winning run in the eighth inning on a foul fly ball hit by teammate Mike Lamb, right. Rays left fielder Carl Crawford made a superb catch on Lamb’s fly, but at the wrong time.

Rays outfielder Carl Crawford caught Mike Lamb's foul fly with a stylish slide, but it gave the Twins the deciding run.

By LA VELLE E. NEAL III, Star Tribune

Last update: April 17, 2008 - 11:37 AM

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It was an excellent catch. Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford showed off his tremendous speed and fearlessness as he slid into foul territory to grab Mike Lamb's fly ball in the eighth inning.

It was also the wrong play, as Delmon Young tagged up from third and easily scored the winning run in the Twins' 6-5 victory over the Rays on Wednesday night at the Metrodome.

While Crawford made a highlight-worthy catch, he had no chance to throw out Young at home. Better judgment should have overruled instincts, and the ball should have been allowed to fall to the ground for no play -- it was 10 feet into foul territory -- and Rays reliever Dan Wheeler should have continued his battle with Lamb.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire emphasized that he understood Crawford was trying to make a play but ultimately said, "He made a heck of a play but ... we said thank you."

Young said: "I just knew the ball was caught and I just ran on home."

The Twins fell behind twice in the game and watched a 5-3 lead disappear in the sixth when righthander Livan Hernandez gave up his third homer of the game, a two-run shot to Shawn Riggans. But the Twins pulled it out in the eighth when Young led off with a single and smartly advanced to third base on Brendan Harris' bloop single to right. That put him in position to capitalize on Crawford's mistake.

"I still figured it was just one run," Crawford said. "Hopefully we could come back and score two runs ... I wasn't worried about that run too much but I understand what I did."

They can take the Devil out of the Devil Rays, but they can't stop the mistakes that have bedeviled the franchise. It was a little more than a year ago at the Dome when Crawford, thinking he had an easy triple, ran with his head down and didn't notice that a teammate had been held at third base until he was almost there. The teammate, Ben Zobrist, took off for home and was tagged out but Crawford compounded the problem by deciding to go back to second, where he was easily thrown out.

Crawford might not like this place very much.

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon has tried to clean that stuff up. But he protected Crawford after Wednesday's gaffe.

"He didn't know how close he was to the line there," Maddon said. "Not knowing exactly where you are when you are running that hard and you are trying to make the play."

Crawford gave the Rays an early lead with a solo homer in the third. Eric Hinske hit a solo homer in the fourth as Tampa Bay moved to a 2-0 lead. The Twins tied the score at 2-2, fell behind 3-2 but grabbed a 5-3 lead in the fifth when former Twins shortstop Jason Bartlett threw wildly to first after fielding a Young grounder, allowing Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau to score.

Mauer went 3-for-4 and threw out two would-be basestealers. But the Twins still needed a late break -- and got one.

"We just came back from Detroit where they just kept chipping away, chipping away [at us]," Young said. "It happened to us and we know we can do it to anyone out there."