Denard Span’s RBI single leads the Minnesota Twins to the Central Division title (Part 2)
The Minnesota Twins hosted the Cleveland Indians in the Target field last night and they made the encounter count for them in the best way, as they managed to bring the American League Central trophy to the fans before crossing
into their 163rd game of the season. The fixture displayed a good exhibition of hitting and pitching as both teams contended for the win, with the sides battling tooth and nail, till the last inning.
Cleveland started strong and the runs flowed in from the very first inning. The visitors began the top 1st with Michael Brantley who flied out to the centre. Drew Sutton stepped in as the second man on the plate and
he went back into the dugout when Twins pitcher, Scott Baker struck him out smoothly. Shin Choo came in and he was walked to the first base. With Travis Hafner on the batting plate, Choo made a run for the second, only to have catcher Drew Butera fumble foolishly.
The sprint to the second turned into a stretch to the third as Choo took advantage of the throwing error. All it took next was Hafner to smash double to the left to get the team’s first run on the board.
Minnesota were on the back foot and Jim Thome was the man to come through for the club. The strong man has been phenomenal this season and the great man made his mark on the game in the bottom 2nd as he stunned the fielders
with a 379 feet homer to the stands on the right side of the park. The hit got the team its equalizer and locked the two Central sides in on 1.
Pitchers from both sides were up on the mark and it looked like the game was going to be locked again for extra time, but Cleveland struck on gold again. They made another run and that came in the top 5th, courtesy Michael
Brantley. The strong hitter started his innings with a single to the right centre. Baker provided the batter with a move to the second when he delivered a wild pitch to Sutton. Drew released Michael for his run when he singled to the left. Twins were down
again and they saw themselves lose their grip on the game again in the top 6th.
Trevor Crowe drove a RBI (Runs Batted In) single when he grounded his shot to double play and got Hafner to score Cleveland’s 3rd of the game. With Jordan Brown and Crowe on third and first base, respectively, Luis Valbuena
walked on to the batting plate. His subsequent double to the deep right got Brown to the dugout with a run in the bag. The visitors had climbed up to 4 runs and this put the Twins on the shady side of fate.
The reply was bound to come and in the bottom 6th Danny Valencia drove in a RBI single to the left, getting Thome home for the second run of the night. However, that wasn’t the end to the onslaught that came. The bottom
8th saw a resilient Twins side take the game away from the Indians and much was owed to everyone on the hitting faction. Delmon Young was the first to force a run as his double to the centre got Trevor Plouffe through for a run.
Young then scored on Jose Morales’ sacrifice hit to the right. The scores had now been levelled at 4 – 4 and it took Denard Span to register his light on the match with a RBI single to the left, that saw Valencia score on. Orlando
Hudson then rewarded Span with a run through a double to the deep right centre.
The move concluded game and no more runs were made as the fixture ended on 6 Minnesota – 4 Cleveland. The night saw the Twins celebrate emphatically with champagne showers and beer baths in the park when the Chicago White Sox crashed
out with a defeat in their game on the same day. The team’s manager Ron Gardenhire became the man to lead the side to their 6th Central title and 800 wins since joining in 2002, making him the 4th most matches winning manager to skipper
a side in Major League Baseball in the new century.
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