Business trip to Miller Park

I'm not sure how it's already approaching the end of August. Summers will just always fly by, right? I wish it went like that for the long winters we have. Those seem to drag on and on. But, it's still baseball season. So I'll focus on that and a recent road trip.

Miller Park during Twins batting practice Aug. 10, 2017.

Anyway, it's been a nice turnaround of a season for the Minnesota Twins. They held a first-place lead in the AL Central division for a good chunk of the season early on, then have been one of the many teams in contention for a Wild Card spot. In some ways, I see some comparisons to the 2015 season, where there was a bit of over-achievement going on. We all know that last year was tough to stomach with the 103 losses in a 162-game season. This year has been refreshing to watch.

Maybe this is a weird thing to admit as a sports follower, particularly with baseball, but I don't have a huge bucket list of ballparks I'd like to visit. I've heard about people checking different parks off their list and doing cross-country trips with baseball being the main item on the agenda. I do have a few IndyCar tracks I'd like to visit though. I think that's just a product of going to races since I was little - and we always had to travel because there wasn't an IndyCar track in the Twin Cities. Major League Baseball has always been in my backyard though, so to speak.

Border battle series
Before I get off on a racing tangent and lose some readers, I mention these other ballparks because I took my first working road trip to watch Twins baseball. The Twins and border-battle rival Milwaukee Brewers had a split four-game series earlier this month Monday-Thursday, August 7-10 (I am *not* opening that can of worms about the schedule here.). Monday-Tuesday in Minneapolis, Wednesday-Thursday in Milwaukee.

Miller Park with the roof open and sun shining.

So, after the Twins swept the first two games, I tossed my suitcase and backpack in the trunk of my car on Wednesday morning to head over to Miller Park for some more baseball. I was going to watch the games anyway, so I might as well watch them in person since I'm so close, right? I had only seen Miller Park driving by many years ago when it was being built. I've also driven by Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City is the only other MLB park I've visited.

I had my audiobooks I got at the library to keep me company on the drive. It was a little different to drive a trip like that on my own. I love road trips, but I'm usually in the back free to read books and relax.

I didn't have too much down time in MKE, but before Thursday's game I took a walk along the Riverwalk downtown, got a brew at Water Street Brewery (opened 30 years ago before breweries popped up everywhere), ate some cheese curds, visited the Pabst Mansion and even made a stop at the Cheesecake Factory for some dessert, because this girl has a sweet tooth.

It's Miller Time 
I heard from people before I left that Miller Park, first open in 2001, looks cooler from the outside, like a big space ship or something. As I took the exit off the freeway and got a glimpse of the stadium, I could see why that's a thought.

The park has a retractable roof, which sounds like heaven considering the Twins have had to play six doubleheaders and endured a bunch of other delays this season and last thanks to the weather. I got to experience the roof being open for the entirety of game one. The next day, the roof started out in its closed state with a threat of showers in the area. The roof was opened mid-game, to the cheers of the crowd.

The view of Target Field with the downtown skyline as the backdrop really can't compare with just the open sky of Miller Park. Minnesota wins that battle. Miller Park definitely felt more enclosed, which makes sense with a building that has an optional roof on it. I was stuck by all the windows when you look out to center field. There just isn't the fan seating out there, but there were plenty of seats in the steep upper decks behind home plate and down the baselines.

It was a little different covering a game there, since I've only worked at Target Field or at home on the couch. But it was really just like any other baseball game. Luckily, the Twins swept the mini-series so I wasn't left twiddling my thumbs. Bartolo Colon, the 44-year-old turned fan-favorite, went seven scoreless innings for a 4-0 victory the first night. Brian Dozier hit a homer to left. Colon looked like he wanted to hit one as well with the cuts he took as a batter under the National League rules.

Then it was a major-league debut for Dietrich Enns the next night. He only went 2.1 innings but gave up just one earned run as the Twins went on to win 7-2. The Twins had a couple 3-run innings in the second and third. They took advantage of a fielding error and scattered some RBI singles. Enns got his first hit, an infield single. The Twins added a couple sacrifice flies, too.

Twins rolling, for better or for worse 
The games completed a 4-game sweep of the Brewers as part of a 6-game winning streak for the Twins, a season-best.

With any 162-game season, there are bound to be tough losses, rough stretches and injury setbacks for teams. To say a season is a roller coaster for a team is probably pretty cliche. It can also be pretty true. The Twins have beaten teams this season when they might have been considered the underdog in that game. They've put together win streaks. Then again, they've also lost a few games to opponents lower in the standings then themselves.

It doesn't always make sense, but the Twins keep coming. They don't show any signs of going away. With two Wild Card slots in the American League - and a bunch of teams competing for them - I wouldn't be surprised to see the Twins in the mix until the final weekend of the season, just like we saw in 2015.