Nightly Notes: Game #116

So far, so good -- the Twins will head into tomorrow's series finale with the Royals as the first place team in the AL Central, with a good chance to extend the lead further. Here are some notes:

1.) Once again, Francisco Liriano was OK but not great. Also once again, he showed flashes of being the pitcher he once was, with some impressive K's. In the end, though, his control once again seemed to get the better of him -- while he walked only 2, it didn't seem like he was hitting his spots as often as I would've liked to see. This was just his second start back, though. Hopefully in another start or two he's going about 7 innings with a similar number of runs allowed. Even if he didn't go enough innings to get a quality start, is there any question that you'd rather have Liriano out there than Livan?

2.) Boof Bonser deserves some credit. Most of his outings have seemed cumbersome, even when he has a large lead and should be relaxing. Tonight, he got through 2.1 innings without giving up a run -- although he had some help from his defense, and also from a friendly ump. Still, the game didn't blow up on him, and that was a positive.

3.) I'm pleased with how Delmon Young has picked up his game a bit, and I was going to very generously say that maybe this season won't be viewed as a disappointment when all is said and done. Then, I looked once again at his run production numbers -- especially his paltry 44 RBI's -- and realized that there's pretty much no way to avoid the scarlet "D". I still have faith that he'll turn into a reliable player for the Twins down the road, but this year was unquestionably rough.

4.) I was stuck listening to the Royals feed tonight, and was somewhat amazed in the 6th inning to hear the announcers talking about the imminent return of Michael Cuddyer. I would have thought that some intern somewhere would be responsible for monitoring the news about the opposition during a series so that such gaffes didn't happen, but based on what I heard it seems as if the production notes are put together before the start of the series, and that's that.

5.) I was going to rag a bit on Adam Everett's bunting prowess, but he ended up drawing a walk so I can't complain too much. The post-that-never-will-be would have gone something like this: "How can you be a light hitting shortstop who spent your entire career to this point in the NL at the bottom of a batting order and NOT BE ABLE TO BUNT!?!". Thankfully, that rant isn't really necessary.

6.) How is it that the USA has not one, not two, but three women capable of winning medals in fencing? In case you somehow missed it (NBC will be focus-grouping you to find out how they managed to not reach you if this is the case), on the first day of competition the USA won three medals -- a gold, silver, and bronze in women's fencing. I actually watched a bit of this late last night. While I'm thrilled we pulled off a medal sweep in the event, I ask again: how do we have three women in the country good enough to medal in this event? Is there an underground fencing movement I've never caught onto to? (Obviously the answer is yes, by the way -- I'm sure we also have Olympic Handball leagues floating around out there too -- amazing).

7.) I'm just going to rag on the NBC once more before closing. I don't mind tape delayed events. In fact, I think that when the Olympics are in a time zone 12 hours away from the bulk of the US audience, tape delaying is to be expected. One of the big selling points for NBC this year, though, has been that numerous prime time events (especially swimming finals) will be LIVE. Seems that's not true for those of us in the Mountain Time Zone. For reasons that escape me, NBC is tape delaying the events by an hour. Despite this, the giant LIVE chyron is still floating across the top of the screen. Don't tease me like that, NBC!

8.) Looking forward to tomorrow's series finale. Hopefully the Twins can pull off the sweep, and get some more help from the Red Sox.