Phil Coke: Absence of malice, I'm almost positive

Just about the first thing I did when we got home from Target Field after the game was check to see how many guys Phil Coke has hit this year and during his pro baseball career.

The answers:

Before he smoked Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel in consecutive at-bats, Coke had hit two of the 225 batters he'd faced this season. The others were Robinson Cano and Travis Hafner.

In his major league career before last night, Coke had hit three of the 515 batters he'd faced.

In Class AA and AAA, Coke threw 137 2/3 innings. He never hit a batter.

On the Twins side of the hit-batter stats: Mauer has been hit by two pitches, Kubel by three and the Twins by 30, which is third-lowest in the majors. Comparisons? Carlos Quentin and Juan Pierre, the White Sox' diving team, have been hit by 35 combined. Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder in Milwaukee have been hit by 44 combined.

Putting Mauer on base with a runner on second base and two out -- even though Mauer was the go-ahead run -- wasn't out of the realm of reasonable strategy. Mauer has a .395 batting average this season with two outs and runners in scoring position and a .519 on-base percentage in 54 such plate appearances. He is among the extraordinary sliver of ballplayers to treat with extreme caution.

Michael Cuddyer's two out/RISP numbers are the weakest of the three.

Yes, there is enough circumstantial evidence to convict Coke of crimes against the Twins, and double the people's penalty if Kubel has to miss any games after getting hit in the hand during the winning rally. He had to leave the game in the eighth, which forced the Twins to lose their DH.

But I'm not buying that Coke was throwing at Kubel.

Coke was tough on himself after the game: "That's not baseball," he said in a postgame interview. "That was me sucking. I was ineffectively wild, and I cost us the game and a chance to close the gap."

If the Twins have feelings one way or another, I suspect they'll keep them closely held -- given how Gardy last week deflected his thoughts on the ninth-inning plunking of Jim Thome in Texas. That's wise. If anyone had lashed out Tuesday, it would probably be in frustration as the result of a night in which three players -- Kubel, Brian Fuentes and Orlando Hudson -- joined the too-long list of the banged-up.

Here's where I'm at:

Detroit came here 10 games down and absolutely needing a three-game sweep to think it had even the remotest chance of getting back into the title race -- and even that was a stretch-and-a-half. So moving the go-ahead run into scoring position -- and sacrificing the favorable Kubel vs. Coke match-up -- just wasn't logical.

I'm settling for the sweet payback of Ryan Perry walking Cuddyer on four pitches to tie the game and Delmon Young coming through with a single to give the Twins a 4-3 lead -- and victory on a night filled with lousy play by the home team.

Now down by 11 games with 30 to play, Tuesday sealed that the Tigers can be relevant only as a spoiler in the season's final month. Root for them against the White Sox next week and the weekend after in the same way you rooted for the White Sox to handle Detroit in the final weekend of last season.

Back to Coke. During his time with the Yankees, and again this season, he was one of those pitchers I didn't like to see come out of the bullpen. He is excellent against lefties and awfully good no matter who's at the plate. It didn't make me happy to see him go to Detroit as part of the Curtis Granderson deal because that meant more chances for him to face the Twins.

If Coke trots in from the bullpen today or Thursday, he should be booed like a heel wrestler.