Baseball is a humbling game that can bring players to their knees -- literally, as was the case with Josh Willingham (right), who was on first base when the skies unleashed a massive bolt of lightning and thunder last night, or figuratively as was the case with the outcome of the same game. Honestly, could you imagine a worse game going into the All-Star break? Consider:
*It already started at 6 p.m. on a Sunday, unusual to say the least but understandable considering the July heat in Texas.
*There was the weather issue, as noted above, which caused a delay. So players who were dreaming of getting away for a few days had even longer to wait.
*And then, of course, there was the game itself. A seemingly certain victory, bolstered by a Cole De Vries gem and a couple insurance runs off old friend Joe Nathan, suddenly turned to mush via a combination of shoddy defense (Brian Dozier) and a couple of the worst pitches Glen Perkins has thrown in a while. A pair of 0-2 pitches turned into hits by Nelson Cruz and Michael Young -- the hanging 0-2 slider to an overmatched Young was particularly brutal -- and suddenly the game was tied.
*It carried into extra innings, of course, and even though the Twins hung on until the 13th inning before losing -- again, delaying the start of vacation -- the outcome seemed inevitable. When Ian Kinsler finally put the Twins out of their misery, it was after 11 p.m., it turned what would have been a winning road trip against two quality teams (Detroit and Texas) into a 3-4 trip full of missed opportunities, and it left the Twins to stew about their first half of the season and their final game of that frustrating first half for a full four days. All in all: Could it have ended any worse?
