Posted below too, but I think it's important for Twins fans who only got FSN to know this:

I'm located in a zone where ESPN had the game, and not FSN. By then end Joe Morgan was absolutely gushing about how brilliant Liriano was. He even made the 2 run HR sound like a positive, talking about how Liriano has been so good he hasn't had to work through tough spots, and seeing him work through pressure like that was even more impressive. At one point he said something like "oh yeah, and Clemens pitched pretty well too," but mostly he just raved about Franchise-K-o.

Excellent.

My sincere thanks to Francisco Liriano and the whole Twins team for beating Roger Clemens in his first game back. Such sweetness...

Awesome!

Hate the Clemens.

I was unable to follow the whole game. Did Hunter get his lone hit off Roger and break his lifetime O-fer??

The Astros didn't get a runner to second base until the 8th inning. That's sexy.

BAT, that would be a negatory. Torii is still the Rocket's bitch I'm afraid. In fact, his last AB against Clemens was just... embarassing.

This was a lovely game, and what better way to remember it than to start with Cher (I really like Cher. Really! Have you seen the video for Believe? It changed my life) and then to curdle and bleed that into Sunset Boulevard?? Life, indeed, is good.

Thanks JimC. I was pulling for him to go all BOD-like on Clemens tonight. Alas.

(Also posted below, sorry)

Nice that baseball finally has a Liriano who doesn't suck! Remember Nelson Liriano, the gawd-awful second baseman who played for the Twins in '90, just before Knoblauch's rookie year? That Liriano made Luis Rivas look like Ryne Sandberg.

I don't get to watch a lot of games. And the few times I have gotten to watch a game on TV, it's required placating some bartenders at Barcode, making them think I'm paying attention to them by ordering drinks.

So I've had a bit too much to drink. Holy hell, was Liri really that good? And did ESPN really pay that little attention to him afterward? Let's get Liri's agent on the phone now and lock him up through 2027 before anyone notices, shall we? :faints:

The main link on ESPN (at this hour) is this wonderful article on Liriano/Clemens by J.Stark.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2497243
Santana leads the League in ERA because Liriano hasn't pitched enough innings. We all know it will be a little while before the apprentice can approach the skill of the master, but the possibilities make me giddy.

Bob-

While the 'Cisco kid is indeed a remarkable young lad, no matter how many bitches he sits down and how low his ERA limbos, he shall never be Johan Santana. *nuzzles Johan*

Nice to hear that ESPN didn't spend the *entire* time fellating Clemens.

I bet the Giants just hate themselves right now.

The Kid is damn good. With some experience that will develop his pitching smarts, I think he will surpass Johan. I think he's got better stuff than Johan and that is obviously saying something. And, as a White Sox fan, that scares me. You don't have any more of these Johan clones down on the farm, do you?

That's freekin hilarious. I'm circulating that one.

The last time Clemens pitched I had to cheer him in the World Cup Series (?). It felt much more natural yesterday to despise him again.

Does Joe Morgan prepare at all for games? Did y'all catch him calling Kubel "Kugel" and MORneau "MorNEAU"? (Oh, wait - Bert does that, and he's our guy. Never mind.) I haven't seen the end of the game yet, but I grew so weary of Morgan calling Clemens by his first name (shades of "Hawk" Harrelson) - like he's Bono or something and doesn't have a last name, or as if Morgan and Clemens are drinking buddies - that I turned the TV down and watched in silence. It was as if the Twins weren't even on the field while Clemens was pitching - Morgan barely spoke about Liriano in the first few innings, even as he was destroying Astro after Astro. Pitiful. Such a shame our boys had to ruin the Clemens Fest, isn't it? Boo hoo.

Now would someone please beat the White Sox and Tigers so we can gain some ground? Thank you.

Honestly, I'm not sure what you all expected from ESPN. This was a huge game for Houston and their postseason chances. This was just another game for the Twins. You have one of the greatest pitchers of all time making his return, what do you think ESPN is going to concentrate on?

So they didn't give the Twins equal coverage on Sportscenter or Baseball Tonight. Who cares? What they did say said it all. "Filthy". Trust me, they know how good Cisco is. Peter Gammons earlier in the week compared Cisco and Johan to Schilling and Unit in Arizona, except in their primes and for an extended period of time. And how scary that is. That's all the ego stroking this guy needs.

Meh, I still say more-NO instead of MORE-no more often than not. It's just awkward saying it the right way.

My favorite thing about pulling up this site every day is that I never know where BG's going to be pulling her inspiration from. Today's is outstanding, I never would have guessed Oscar Wilde. So far out of left field, yet so appropriate. Bravo!

Love this post. That is all.

There are few things better than an excellent game recap. One of those things is an excellent recap that references Sunset Boulevard.

Speedy, the Twins and Astros have virtually the same record; I honestly don't see where this game, in the overall scheme of things (this is June, after all), means more to them than it does to the Twins. Yeah, I know the whole reason the game was on ESPN is because it was The Great Roger Clemens Returning To Take His $987,000,000 And Pitch The Astros Into Third Place and all that, but a bit more objectivity would have been nice. What Morgan did is exactly what I expected from him, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.

As for this dazzling bit of prose... Only BG can manage to drag Dorian Grey, Cecil B. deMille, "Star Trek", and Ponce de Leon into the same post and have it all, for some inexplicably wondrous reason, work. My awe goes on and on.

Batgirl, it's always lovely to come in here, and find myself amused for the rest of the day.

I'm glad the Astros got to see great pitching last night. I'm sure they would've preferred it out of their pitcher, but...well, why not from a little kid?

Of the Giants fans who realized that the Veep and Frisco were both theirs, how many do you think burst into tears after the final out last night?

I heard most of the game on XM. The Astro announcers were pretty even-handed for the home-town crowd. So happy the Twins hung on, but it was one of those games you knew would be ok.

Lovely post, Batgirl. Bitchin' allusions.

I, unfortunately, am in the middle of moving and when the Twins finally showed up on ESPN, had no ESPN to watch. Aaaargh. So I watched gameday on my computer, which is less fun, but seemed necessary.

A note, though, and questions. It seemed like the Twins' hitters had a consistant gameplan -- real patience. So many at bats seemed to start out with three or four pitches that the guys didn't even swing at, and then there was a lot of delightful fouling off of pitches. (I don't even care if Lew flew out -- 11 pitches!) And Clemons' pitchcount soared.

So my questions: did this really seem to be the case when you were actually watching the game? And perhaps more importantly (since I rarely get to see them play) was this an isolated occurance, or are they approaching most games this way? (Put in Batgirl's terms, have they ceased being a bunch of swing-happy spaz-monkeys?)

Curiously,

hrunting

hrunting...good question, I was thinking the exact same thing while following on gamecast.

Dear Mr/Ms Runting,

It did indeed seem the hitters were very patient. BatDad in particular noticed they laid off the high fastball (most of them, anyway). I suspect the various Jasons have a very good approach at the plate and Mr. Morneau seems to be emulating Mr. Mauer, to great effect. Others?

Sincerely,
Batgirl

Adidas, same record yes, but the similarities end there. The 'Stros are a mere 2 games out of the NL Wild Card, 6 I think out of the division lead. Meanwhile our Twins have been playing .900 ball for the last couple weeks and haven't managed to make up a single game on not just the one team ahead of us, but the two ahead of us. To me, that's quite a significant difference. And all due respect to the Jackal and Bradke, but their finally remembering how to pitch isn't quite the same as adding a pitcher to the rotation that led the Majors in ERA last season. It is a bigger deal to Houston. It would be like the Twins adding John Smoltz to their rotation at this point.

Obviously it's not "fair" that ESPN only talked about Roger and the 'Stros. But we are talking about the same network that gives us the pleasure of watching the Yanks and Sawks 590 times a year too. So I say again, what did you really expect???

I gotta say though, Mr. Hunter did not enhance his standing in my eyes last night. Whatever the Jasons and the Doctor were told to do at the plate, Torii must have been thinking about something else.

Clemens owns Torii. Torii's up there trying to do anything to get a hit off this guy. Ask any Major League hitter and they'll tell you about the one guy who absolutely owned/owns them. You gotta give him a pass for that, right?

"I'm ready for my close up, Mr. Gammons..."

So. Damn. Funny.

As I said, Speedy, ESPN gave us exactly what I expected them to give us. But that doesn't preclude me from dreaming of a different world, a better world, one in which supposedly unbiased announcers are actually that, one in which Joe Morgan's glibness would be universally condemned, one in which neither Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey would be allowed to make films...but I digress.

Hrunting, what you saw online is what happened in the game - other than Torii, who has once again regressed to his flailing-at-every-pitch-in-the-same-zip-code-as-he's-in mode, the Twins were universally disciplined, smart, and patient at the plate, making ol' Rocket work a lot harder than he would have liked. It was lovely.

I suppose it was never an option to have Torii sit this game out, but that is often what one does when a player would have to face a pitcher that "owns them" as much as Clemens owns Torii.

I've been too swamped to lurk lately, much less post, but I wanted to share that I am going to the game tonight w/a Cubs fan-friend and I realized I know EXACTLY what to wear: my "Jacque is my Boyfriend" T-shirt.!! Along w/my Twins hat and my "Santana for Cy Young" button, I have the proverbial bases covered.
(Great post, batgirl - the last line is perfection.)

BG! We love you and your prose. Yeah, the Bitch Sox and Tigers may have double digit leads over us.....but do they have anything that even comes close to you?

Nada, Zip, Fuggedtaboudit!

Go Twins!

It was a delight to be able to watch this game as I so rarely see them here. I didn't expect much with all the Clemens hype overshadowing this, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by the props the ESPN guys gave to Liriano.

As someone trapped in The City by a Body of Water, I have to say most Giants fans have no idea that Cisco was a Giant farm hand. The Giants do such an awful job of developing their talent that if they show any talent, they normally get traded for some with name recognition. But if they did know they probably wouldn't care b/c its all about BARRY here.

As for Nathan, all my co-workers say that the Twins got lucky and something about him being a bum b/c of some post season loss. I think it was against Florida?

Last night's game was great and it is so much fun seeing Mauer, Cuddyer, and Morneau bat one after the other. You add Kubel and that's 4 guys that I'm really starting to trust to come through for the Twins. Sorry Torii but you don't make that list anymore unless it's in the field.

Let's GO TWINS!

I can add to cal's assessment of Giant territory and say most of them are mostly likely unaware of the AL unless a Bay series with Oakland is happening, or lamenting that the Giants have missed the post-season again. :))

I am very impressed with the Kid. He has a great future ahead of him, hopefully with the twins. But, I think that some of the fame has been shifted away from our long time ace pitcher, and bright spot in the rotation, Mr. Santana.

Cisco is great, but let us not forget our cy young winner. They're already calling Cisco "Franchise", but what does Johann think about that after he has pitched soooooo bueno for us for a few years, instead of a few games.
Great job to Cisco pitchin last night though!!!!!!

Mrs. Mauer, it was actually Radke who gave Liriano the nickname 'franchise', and it's just stuck. In fact, about a week ago, during a game they Dick and Bert had an interview with Johan, who was sitting near the dugout next to Liriano. When Dick asked him a question about being the face of the franchise, Johan quickly laughed and said, "No, no, the guy next to me is the franchise. He's a lot better than I was at his age, he's going to be incredible."

I think the reason most of us love Johan, besides his awesome bitch sitting downing, is he's the type of person who wouldn't let a fellow pitcher being called the franchise bother him. Instead, he just prefers to say, "Happy Birthday!"

Well said Will. Johan knows that he's our first love. What's so great about him is his nonexistent ego, and his huge heart. He's still my #1 boyfriend. :)

Now, Johan, go sit some bitches down tonight!

If only the "Real Deal" could get it together we could have a rotation of
El Presidente
The Real Deal
The Franchise
followed by The Great Chaccaron and
The Ultimate Boof

Hey Cal 'n CelticFrog, some of us Giants fans are still pissed that Sabean traded away Francisco, Boof and Joe (especially Joe! we have needed closing pitching for the past couple of years), for that goon AJ. And, if you truly knew any Giants fans, you'd know that it isn't all Barry all the time with a lot of them; it's the media that keeps pushing that agenda.

BG-this is F'ing brilliant!!!! I have visions of Cher commiserating with Rocket over the logistics of farewell tours and how does my ass look...too good. Thanks for the grin.

Best entry of the year, Beeg!

Fun article at SI about Clemens being upstaged by Liriano. Click my name to get there!

WOOHOO.

Thanks, talldrink. Clemens' quote indicates that BG is right on:

"I'm trying to fight off age the best I can and I'll do the work," Clemens said.