Ron Gardenhire gave Jason Kubel his first start of the season in left field on Friday night, and in return Kubel put on the best show of the season and one of the better comebacks I've seen in recent years.

Kubel drove in the first run of the game on a double to the gap that scored Justin Morneau from first base. He singled in the third inning and added a triple and scored what was the tying run in the sixth inning. The real fireworks came in the eighth inning after the Twins had already scored 3 runs to reduce their deficit to 9-7. Justin Morneau was intentionally walked to load the bases with 2 outs. Kubel apparently didn't like that, and made Mike Scioscia pay the price. Kubel launched a ball to the upper deck in right-center to put the Twins up by 2 runs. Kubel's night marked the first time since Kirby Puckett in 1987 that a Twin hit for the cycle at the Metrodome (Carlos Gomez did it in Chicago last season).

A lot of not so good stuff happened in the game as well. Nick Blackburn allowed 4 straight singles in the fifth inning which led to 3 runs. In that inning Gardy also took a chance with an intentional walk. In that case he walked Bobby Abreu to load the bases for Torii Hunter. Blackburn induced infield flies from both Hunter and Kendry Morales to work out of the inning without any further damage.

Speaking of free passes, Joe Posnanski had an interesting though about a rule change centered around the intentional walk on his blog earlier this week.

Things looked really dismal in the seventh inning when the Angels scored 5 runs, 4 off Jesse Crain. He gave up 2 hits and 3 walks while recording just 1 out. Up until this game, Crain had been one of the few bright spots in the bullpen.

Game Notes

• Matt Guerrier was credited with the win, despite not pitching particulary well. He allowed the fifth run of the seventh inning.
• Joe Nathan recorded his second save of the season.
• Brendan Harris started at 2B and hit his first home run of the season.
• Denard Span, Michael Cuddyer and Mike Redmond each had 2 hits.

Visual representation of an eighth inning comeback: