Over the weekend the Twins took two out of three from the Phillies, in what was the two teams' first series in six years, due to some weird quirk in the interleague schedule. The Twins had never before played at Citizen's Bank Park, Ryan Howard had never faced the Twins, and Joe Mauer had never faced the Phils.
A few notes on the weekend:
- Just my luck, the only game of the series I went to was Friday, when the Phils won. Saturday I was at a wedding and couldn't even watch one of the craziest games of the entire season, when the Twins came back from a 9-4 deficit and scored nine runs in the ninth inning and later to win 11-10 in 10 innings. Sunday, I spent my first Father's Day with both my father and my son, watching the Twins beat the Phils behind the unstoppable pitching of Carl Pavano.
- And yes, Noah is a dual fan of the two teams, something that's allowed since they're in different leagues.
- The Twins won the series despite neither Nick Blackburn or Kevin Slowey getting out of the third inning of their starts on Friday and Saturday. Pavano, though, pitched a complete-game 4-hitter Sunday. I've been impressed with him- and his mustache- but I hope the Twins don't do something foolish like sign him to a multi-year deal.
- I'm sure most Phillies fans would be thrilled if you'd told them before the season that Brad Lidge's first blown save of the year wouldn't be until June 19.
- I expected the Philly fan outrage to mostly be directed at the bullpen for blowing the Saturday game, but the main radio topic of conversation was... the Phils fans who cheered ex-Phil Jim Thome when he came up as a pinch-hitter, and even after he hit a single Friday and a crucial homer Saturday. Is the Philly fan savagery dying out? Either way, I'm sure Jim appreciates it.
- My dad and I wore Twins hats at the game and got just about no trouble from anyone, except for a couple of college douchebags in the men's room. There was one drunken older guy who, after Nick Punto's homer Friday, shouted that he excited about seeing the former Phil. When I retorted "you can have him!," the guy seemed offended.
- It was my first time this year at Citzen's Bank Park; it's my fourth ballpark of the season, after Nationals Park, Target Field and Yankee Stadium. And much as I love the place, I think it has to rank behind Target.
- And on Friday night, the Phillie Phanatic's on-field skit entailed the mascot attempting to seduce the female version of the Phanatic, and eventually jumping on her. I thought he was supposed to be a children's entertainer...
Posted by Stephen Silver at June 21, 2010 05:13 PM