After a slow 4-5 start, the Twins turned their season around. They ran off a 9-2 streak to finish the season. Their two losses were to the Cardinals and Red Sox, the two best teams in the league. They even managed to eke out a 3rd place overall seeding (out of 12 teams) in the playoffs and a first-round bye!
Their first game would be against the sixth seed, the Padres. During the regular season, we had our ace on the mound. He was cruising along and we were winning, 4-2. In the top of the fourth with two outs, we ran into one of those little league streaks where a ball snuck under a glove here and a catch at second base was dropped there. After a few hits and another error, we were suddenly down 6-4. The game would end that way. This was the last loss before the Twins would run off a string of six consecutive victories.
One of the neighbor boys down the street plays for the Padres. He was with a second boy who is also friends with Older Brother (OB). My wife saw them getting ready and said, "Normally, I would wish you luck, but not today." The neighbor boy replied, "We don't need it." I guess you could say the rivalry was certainly on!
The game started well. After giving up a run in the first inning, we scored a quick three. We were cruising along again when the dreaded fourth inning came up again. Perhaps it was the strain of working through the batting order the third time through. Whatever the case, it was like deja vu all over again. We just could not seem to field or stop a succession of bleeders and ground balls from turning into base runners. As the Padres kept circling, we changed pitchers and it still didn't help. Our lead disappeared and we were now down 7-3. To make matters worse, we had two outs in the sixth and then gave up two more insurance runs to go down 9-3.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Padres finally ran into some of the same issues we dealt with. They gave up a solid single and then a shot to the outfield ran under the center fielder's glove all the way to the wall and went for a little league triple. A parade of base runners followed. With nobody out, we had scored four runs to make it 9-7. At this point, the Padres coach put boy #2 (from two paragraphs above) into the game. This ten year-old was on the opposite team last summer from OB and was on the mound when he ran into serious difficulty and turned a close game into a comfortable lead for us. I was secretly hoping for a repeat. He ended up walking the bases loaded. Unfortunately, we also had the bottom of the order coming up and our weaker batters. He ended up striking out the side and we lost, 9-7.
The majors playoffs are double elimination. We had a game the next day against the Cubs. OB only got to play the last three innings, but he did field well and hit a shot (possibly his best swing of the season) but his line drive was at the center fielder. As I told him later, that's baseball for you. It can often be cruel. You do everything right and you don't get a solid result. I reminded him that it's about keeping up your process and playing the odds and eventually your luck will turn. The Twins would go on to win, 6-4.
Their prize was another game in the loser's bracket. They did not expect to run into the league's regular season champion in that game. The Cardinals had gone 21-0 in the regular season. They averaged over a dozen runs a game and regularly stomped on teams by double digits. Less than two weeks ago, they beat the Twins 11-3 with their top players hitting five home runs.
This was my first time seeing the team in person. I had been traveling when they first played. It was no wonder they were so dominant. Their top kid is pushing nearly six feet tall (in sixth grade!). The four kids after him were all more than 5' 6" and any one of them would have been the biggest kid on the Twins. I was shocked to hear that they had lost their earlier game, but that is baseball for you.
It was a taut affair. Their ace was on the mound throwing at about 60 miles an hour (really fast for little league). We were giving up base runners, but our fielding was keeping us in the game. We had only one hit in the first three innings and no runs. In both the first and second innings, they had runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Both times, we escaped without giving up a run.
In the third, the Twins struck first. We strung together a few hits. A wild pitch moved the runners into scoring position. We then got a single that scored a run and a groundout to score a second. It was now 2-0.
The lead was short lived. In the bottom of the inning with one out, our pitcher walked their leadoff hitter (who personally had hit two homers against us in the regular season rout). His reward was facing the home run derby champ batting second. He promptly launched a no-doubter well beyond the center field fence for the tying homer. Our pitcher settled down and escaped with no further damage.
In the top of the fifth, we were able to scratch across another two runs by stringing together three hits and a few groundouts. In the bottom of the fifth, the Cardinals leadoff batter released his frustrations on the ball and it also flew out well beyond the center field fence to cut the lead to one. Miraculously, we still got out of the inning and led 4-3. OB (playing second base) contributed in the fourth by catching a popup after nearly colliding with the shortstop. In the bottom of the fifth, he snagged a hard shot that looked like a base hit and casually flipped to second to get the force. They nearly got a double play out of it!
OB got to bat in both the fourth (against the fireballer) and the sixth. He fouled one off in his first at-bat but struck out. In the sixth, he worked the count full but got caught looking at a pitch that caught the outside corner.
The Twins had to replace their pitcher in the bottom of the sixth (pitch count). They went with their tallest and strongest kid. He can throw hard, but he isn't the most accurate pitcher. Fortunately, he would be facing the weaker hitters for the Cardinals. He started off with two balls but then followed up with a strike and a foul made the count 2-2. His next pitch was too much of a meatball and got pounded into center to put the tying run on first. He followed that up with a weak grounder that dribbled past him. The shortstop rushed in but flubbed it and suddenly there were runners on first and second with nobody out.
The next batter got to two strikes. He then flared one to second. OB jumped and got a glove on it only to see it pop out and go into right field. The runner from second raced home and we were now tied. A walk loaded the bases and we were now back at the top of the order.
Since he had hit a homer in his last at-bat, he was feeling confident. He dug into the box and it got tense. Two balls made it even tougher. He let a weak strike go by. On the next pitch, he took a mighty cut--and drove the ball a hundred feet straight up! The catcher waited a few beats but ended up catching it for an out.
The home run derby champ came next. He took one ball. He took ball two. He swung at the next one and missed. Then came ball three. The fifth pitch would be the last as he drove it to left center. No one was going to catch this one and the Cardinals would walk off with a 5-4 victory.
After the game, OB was more upset because he really wanted to pitch. Ironically, when I went to congratulate the coach after the game for a great season, he admitted that he actually thought about putting him in the game but worried it might be too much pressure. While a part of me wishes he had had the opportunity, I also realize the coach was playing it safe. The other boy was 12 and this would be his last LL game. No one would criticize him for pitching him and losing. OB might have done better (I am 99% certain he would have), but there are no guarantees.
OB took it better than I expected. Maybe it was because I told him the coach thought about putting him in. Maybe it's because summer ball actually starts on Thursday. Whatever the case, it was a great season for the Twins. I'm looking forward to more excitement this summer!
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