Bartman spotted on South side Twins 5 at White Sox 4 August 25th, 2006 at 11:32 pm

By Kris Richardson

I’m not sure if it was Steve Bartman, a good Twins fan or a typical White Sox fan, but some guy at U.S. Cellular field helped out the Twins in the bottom of the ninth on Friday night. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Chicago trailing by 1 run with a runner on second, Jermaine Dye hit a foul ball near the stands along the first base line. Justin Morneu ran to the and put his glove under the ball only to have it bumped by the fan. Interference was called and the game was over. Twins Win!

It’s probably not nearly the big deal that I just made it out to be. It’s certainly not as big of a a deal as Torii Hunter’s sixth inning 3-run homer was. And it wasn’t as big of a deal as Jason Bartlett’s ninth inning RBI single that scored Hunter. I should also mention the Twins bullpen which held the Sox to just one run in seven innings after Brad Radke left early. It was a fun game to watch and I can’t wait to see what happens the rest of this weekend.

Game Notes

Torii Hunter hit his 20th (and biggest) homerun of the season. He has had 2 hits and a homerun in each of the three games.
Pat Neshek allowed his third homerun of the season. All have been no-doubters against lefties.
Joe Mauer had just one hit, but had three well-hit balls that happened to find fielders.
Nick Punto hit his first homerun of the season in the fifth inning for the Twins’ first run.

Playoff Race

The win put the Twins in first place in the wildcard race. They are also just 5 game behind the Tigers after Cleveland beat them Friday night. The Tigers stumble has turned into a 2 week skid. It’s not entirely out of the question that they could not make the playoffs.

Saturday Night

Johan Santana will try to secure the series victory on Saturday night against Jose Contreres who has given up 7 ER in each of his last two starts. With the bullpen throwing 7 innings Friday night it would be nice to see Santana go deep into the game. However, the good starts of Garza and Bonser before Friday really helps a lot with the situation.