Baseball in football-like weather

"It's a beautiful night for baseball." The now-seemingly-famous words spoken by Fox Sports North announcer Dick Bremer prior to the start of most Twins games played at Target Field. Most of the time this season, that has been the case. But not recently.

Since Ma Nature decided to slap Minnesotans in the face with a sudden jump from summer to instant autumn, going to Target Field within the past week or so has been like going to a football game. Cool temps and wind have ended the great summer evenings of baseball.



I went to the game this past Tuesday with my friend Cassie. We were fortunate enough to see the Twins thump the Kansas City Royals 10-3. Thanks Brian Bannister for your 2-2/3 innings of work, allowing the boys to score six runs in the third.

It was one of those cool evenings, so I came prepared in layers. Long underwear on the bottom, warm socks inside my hikers, a long-sleeved shirt under a hooded sweatshirt covered up by my Twins jersey. I came with mittens and blankets, but fortunately those were unnecessary; we were warm enough with our layers.

Big, offensive night
The Twins took an early lead and never looked back. But the six-run third inning was where the game really got away from KC.

Delmon Young was a big hitter for the night, as he tried to come back to his July ways after his hiccup in August. He was 3-for-4 with four RBI (all coming with two outs). Even lowly J.J. Hardy is breaking out a little bit. He hit his first home run at Target Field this week, and Tuesday he was 1-for-3 with three RBI.

Utility infielder Matt Tolbert also knocked out an RBI-triple (he's making a habit of it recently). We also got to see call-up Ben Revere pinch-hit for the high-socks-wearing Denard Span. Revere struck out, but he also made a nice catch in center field.

Thome's the man
One of the best offensive moments of the evening was when Jim Thome hit his 586th career home run to, where else, the right field platform near the flag pole (which he already hit head-on with a bomb over the weekend). It was a solo shot that was pretty much a no-doubter.

With the blast, he tied Frank Robinson for the No. 8 spot on the career home-run list. This got the crowd to its feet, and Thome was nice enough to come out of the dugout briefly for a well-deserved curtain call.

I gotta say, it's so nice to have him on our team after all the years he spent in Cleveland and Chicago, hitting homers against us. The 40 year old can't run very fast, but that doesn't count in a home-run trot.

Lucky 13 for Liriano
On the pitching side, Francisco Liriano improved to 13-7 with seven strong innings. He gave up seven hits, two earned runs and struck out four on the way to the victory. Glen Perkins pitched the eighth, and I was happy to see Pat Neshek return to the major-league mound for the ninth, although he didn't look too commanding as he walked two and gave up a hit resulting in the third run for KC.

Another highlight of the night was when the Chicago White Sox game went final on the out-of-town scoreboard. Cheers erupted from fans as the Tigers beat the Sox 9-1.

It was a great game and thank goodness the cooler weather didn't get in the way of enjoying it. It didn't hurt that the game didn't drag on for three-plus hours either. Plus, my Target Field record improved to 4-1.