Coming off a series win in Chicago against the White Sox, the Twins arrived back at Target Field with a 1-game lead in the AL Central Division. The Twins had spent the last 17 out of 20 games on the road and they kicked off this well deserved home stand with a 3-game series against the Oakland Athletics that started on Friday. The Twins managed to come away with a win in the series opener by scoring 4 runs despite only having 5 total hits and allowing 14 to the A’s. In fact, the Twins scored all 4 of their runs on only 3 hits due to a pair of errors and several walks. Oakland’s starting pitcher, Gonzalez, got the loss even though he only gave up 2 earned runs (and 2 unearned runs caused by the pair of errors) and just 3 hits over 6 innings.
It was Carl Pavano’s turn on the mound for the Twins and the tale of the mustache continues to grow. TC, the Twins bear mascot, continues to sport a mustache for every one of Pavano’s starts. The Twins organization has even bestowed upon Pavano a new nickname, Super Carl-io, which is a play on the video game character Super Mario. When Pavano took the mound in the first inning for his warm up pitches, the stadium music was what else…the Super Mario Bros. theme song:
This funny introduction for Pavano certainly didn’t go unnoticed by the Twins players as I noticed Jason Kubel in particular cracking up while he was taking his warm up throws in the outfield. Let the growing legend of the mustache live on! Perhaps the association with Super Mario can be attributed to ESPN’s Sportscenter who made the comparison a few weeks ago.
This game also marked the second time this season that the Twins put on a post-game fireworks show. The first time was on July 2nd as part of the 4th of July weekend celebration. They certainly couldn’t have done this at the Metrodome. I was fortunate enough to have great seats again for this game and of course I brought my camera along. So please take a look at my pictures from this game in the link below. Enjoy!
Link: Minnesota Twins vs. Oakland Athletics, August 13, 2010