I forgot the game was this afternoon, so I missed the first eight innings. It didn't matter much, because I saw everything I needed to see in the final two innings. Down 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth, Justin Morneau picked up a one-out walk off of Damaso Marte. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen lifted Marte for closer Dustin Hermanson, who got Matthew LeCroy to pop out to short. Luis Rodriguez was then brought in to pinch run for Morneau - a move which would be critically important later to the outcome of the game. Michael Ryan stepped up and slapped a hard liner down the first base line. The ball hit off of first baseman Paul Konerko's glove and rolled over by Chicago's bullpen. Konerko was too busy arguing that the ball had been foul (television replays were inconclusive) to chase down the ball. Luis Rodriguez - in disbelief both that the ball was in play and that Konerko wasn't bothering to chase after it - kept looking back, but eventually made his way around to score. Second baseman Geoff Blum grabbed the live ball and threw it to Konerko, who could have easily thrown out Rodriguez at the plate, but he dropped the ball again, which allowed Rodriguez to score and Ryan to reach second. Astonishingly, there was no error called on Konerko for either fuck up.

A tie ballgame meant we were headed for extra innings. Rodriguez stayed in the game at third, and Terry Tiffee moved from third to first for Morneau. Geoff Blum led off with a double to the wall in center. Joe Crede stepped into the box next and tried to bunt. Jesse Crain threw high-and-tight, and the pitch hit Crede's hand as he tried to bunt it. He was then lifted for pinch hitter Pablo Ozuna. Ozuna tried to bunt, Crain again threw high-and-tight, and Ozuna also bunted foul. With the 0-2 pitch, Crain and Mauer incorrectly guessed that Ozuna wouldn't bunt, but that wasn't the real mistake on the play. Ozuna's bunt went right back to Crain, who picked it up and threw to Rodriguez at third. The throw easily beat Blum to third, but Rodriguez missed the tag by over a foot, and then, instead of trying to tag him again, he spun around off the base and tried to flash his glove at the umpire as if to claim he had tagged Blum, even though it was visible even to the fans sitting in the last row of the upper deck that he had fucked up the tag. Timo Perez followed with a single that scored Blum, the Twins rolled over and died in the bottom half of the inning, and that was the ballgame.

So, with consecutive losses last night and this afternoon, the Twins are quickly extricating themselves from the Wild Card chase. Having Shannon Stewart and Jacque Jones out of the lineup the last two games hasn't helped any either. The good news is that the Twins are considering moving Joe Mays to the bullpen. There's a possibility that Scott Baker could get called up and get the start in Mays's place on Monday at Kansas City. Anything that gets him out of the rotation has to be a good thing, as he has clearly lost whatever stuff he once had.

After losing two of three against Chicago at the Metrodome, it's back on the road for the Twins. They open a three-game series with the Texas Rangers Friday night in Arlington. Kyle Lohse (8-11, 4.09 ERA) is expected to get the start against Kameron Loe (5-4, 4.17 ERA) for the Rangers. Lohse is 1-1 in August with a 2.39 ERA in 4 starts. His lone loss of the month came in the 1-0 loss to Seattle on August 9. It's his best month since May, when he was 3-1 with a 2.30 ERA in 4 starts and one relief appearance. As for Loe, Friday night's game would be his first start of the season and second of his career. He has made 40 relief appearances for the Rangers this season.

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