MINNEAPOLIS – After the suicide squeeze bunt that sank the Twins on Saturday night, center fielder Denard Span ran past one of the umpires and said, “That’s National League baseball right there.”
Span was a Braves fan growing up in Tampa, Fla., so he’d seen manager Bobby Cox work his magic many times. Now in his farewell season, Cox put his fingerprints all over Atlanta’s 3-2 victory at Target Field.
It wasn’t just the squeeze. It was the hit-and-run before the squeeze. And the three pitching changes a half-inning earlier that helped keep the Twins from regaining the lead.
“I give them credit,” Span said. “They played their game in our park.”
Give both teams credit, actually. Nineteen years after staging one of the greatest World Series ever played – with five games decided by one run – they’ve helped give interleague play a good name with two tense, one-run ballgames.
On Friday, the Twins scored a seventh-inning run to give Francisco Liriano a 2-1 victory over Tim Hudson. On Saturday, Nick Blackburn and Derek Lowe each allowed two runs before the bullpens took over in the eighth inning.
Cox tiptoed through an eighth-inning jam after Span singled and advanced to second on Trevor Plouffe’s sacrifice bunt. Two innings earlier, after that same sequence by Span and Plouffe, Cox let Lowe pitch to Joe Mauer, who delivered the game-tying RBI double.
This time, Cox had Lowe walk Mauer intentionally, then summoned lefthander Eric O’Flaherty to face Justin Morneau. After Morneau lined out to deep right field, righthander Peter Moylan walked Michael Cuddyer, loading the bases for Jason Kubel. But lefty Jonny Venters came on and fanned Kubel with a 94-miles-per hour fastball.
“Those lefties coming out of that bullpen are fantastic,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.
Matt Guerrier put the Twins in trouble in the eighth with one-out walk to Atlanta’s No. 9 hitter, Gregor Blanco. When Martin Prado singled to left field, Blanco was running on the pitch and easily reached third.
Gardenhire turned to Jose Mijares because the switch-hitting Brooks Conrad was 0-for-6 against lefthanders. One disadvantage for lefties, however, is they have a harder time seeing a runner break from third to home.
“You’ve got to try to win somehow,” Cox said. “The only thing you worry about is pitch-outs. Everybody’s like, ‘Why don’t you squeeze?’ Well, they can stop a squeeze in a heartbeat.”
But Mijares wasn’t expecting it. Blanco broke from third, and Conrad got what Mijares called a “perfect” bunt down.
“You never know (the squeeze is coming),” Gardenhire said. “We don’t play against those guys an awful lot. Situational baseball, it’s in the back of your head.”
Gardenhire was disappointed in his team’s own execution, mentioning the double play to end the sixth inning, when Cuddyer struck out swinging and Mauer was caught stealing third base. The Twins had sent Mauer to avoid a double play, but Cuddyer swung at ball four, and Atlanta got a double play anyway.
“We know that organization always executes and gets it done,” Gardenhire said. “And we hope to be doing the same thing.”
The Twins still have a chance to win the series Sunday, and knowing these two teams, the late innings should be dramatic.