One night after playing a grueling, 16 inning game against the Mariners in my Twins franchises, these two teams met again in game 2 of this Mid-May, 3 game set at Target Field. Due to the prior nights game going long, I decided to mix up my lineup and give a couple guys the night off. Drew Butera got the start behind the plate for Joe Mauer, and Matt Tolbert was penciled in at 2nd base for Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who went 0 for 7 in his last game. Jason Kubel also got the night off after playing all 16 innings in right field last night, so Jason Repko was in his spot as well.
Anthony Swarzak was making just his second start of the season after being called up from Triple-A Rochester to replace a struggling Kevin Slowey. Slowey had been called on to replace the injured Brian Duensing. Swarzak struggled, giving up 8 hits and 3 earned runs while only recording 11 outs in the game. I called on Kevin Slowey to get Swarzak out of a big jam in the 4th, and Slowey was able to retire Ichiro with the bases loaded to limit the Mariners to 3 runs on the board.
I was able to tie the game at 3 in the 6th inning with a Delmon Young sacrifice fly. It looked like these two teams were, for the second night in a row, going to be playing deep into the night. But how deep? Well, the game would end up spanning two days, so that might give you an idea...
For brevity's sake, I won't recap the remaining 14 innings of scoreless baseball. I will just say that on 4 different occassions, I walked Miguel Olivo in order to set up a double play, and 4 times, I was able to get out of the inning by retiring Brendan Ryan and Ichiro (only once did Ryan hit into the planned double play). I led off the 16th inning with a triple by Delmon Young, but stranded his pinch runner Ben Revere. Running out of available arms in the bullpen, I turned to Carl Pavano, who was schedule to pitch on Friday. Carl ended up throwing 5 innings of scoreless ball on roughly 3 days of rest. The best threat from the M's came in the 19th, when Miguel Olivo singled into right with Jack Cust on 2nd base. Jason Kubel came up throwing, and gunned the rotund slugger at the plate by a couple steps.
In the Bottom of the 21st inning, Denard Span led off by driving a David Aardsma fastball over Ichiro's head for a triple. Alexi Casilla then stepped up to the plate, hoping to be the hero. Aardsma uncorked a wild fastball...that hit Casilla in the foot. Had Casilla gotten out of the way, the ball gets past Miguel Olivo, and Denard Span, as well as the roughly 10,000 fans remaining at Target Field, scamper home for some much needed sleep. As it is, Casilla gets to first. Ben Revere then steps up to the plate, as he was inserted into the game in the 16th as a pinch runner after Delmon Young's leadoff triple. He hits a low fastball into center field. The ball hangs up in the air long enough for Franklin Gutierrez to camp under it, and deliver a throw home. I tag up with Denard Span, but decide to not risk it and scurry back to third. I figured with 1 out, and Justin Morneau stepping to the plate, I would have another chance.
Morneau, inexplicably struggling this year against right handed pitchers, gets a 1-0 fastball from Aardsma and lines it into the left center field gap. Gutierrez races to his right, makes the catch, but has no play. Span races home from third base, and it's finally over!
21 innings. 15 pitchers. 2 hours and 31 minutes of REAL time. Roughly 6 hours of game time. Check out the box scores and Player of the Game below. Also, video of Jack Cust being thrown out at home, with the Target Field clock reading 12:47 a.m.! And, the highlight video of the game. It ends up glitching out at the end, and not showing the game-winning sacrifice fly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2eIRQfWOG4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckEjV7z9-Kc