1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H
White Sox	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	4	9
Twins	0	0	0	0	5	2	0	1	x	8	14

Through the first 4 1/2 innings of Saturday night’s game Brad Radke worked the Twins into a 0-4 deficit and the bats remained largely silent against Javier Vasquez. Radke pitched a quick 1st inning but allowed 1 run in each the 2nd and 3rd innings. Radke gave up 2 more runs in the 5th making the expected outcome of the game look pretty bleak.

That all changed in the bottom of the fifth though, when Twins hitters figured out Vasquez. Rondell White and Tony Batista each singled to start off the innings. A couple of sac flies by Castro and Stewart scored Rondell White, but left the Twins with 2 outs and only 1 run. Luis Castillo kept the inning alive with a single, and Joe Mauer followed up with an RBI single to score Batista. Torii Hunter also singled to bring the score to 4-3. Michael Cuddyer was hit by a pitch and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was ejected when he dissaproved of the call. With bases loaded Justin Morneau singled to drive in 2 runs and give the Twins a 5-4 lead. It was excellent to see the Twins score 4 runs with 2 outs in the inning.

The Twins would come back with 2 more runs against Vasquez in the 6th inning from a Castillo homerun and they added another run in the 8th which eliminated a save opportunity for poor Joe Nathan.

Game Notes

• Rondell White was 2-for-4 as he continues to hit better.
• Luis Castillo, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau each had 2 RBIs in the game.
• For the second straight night, every hitter in the starting lineup had at least one hit.
• Brad Radke gave up 4 runs in 5 2/3 innings. He did pick up the win thanks to the Twins 5 run fifth. Gardenhire had little patience for him when he gave up one hit in the 6th. He was promptly pulled for Fransisco Liriano
• Liriano pitched 2 1/3 innings in relief. He struck out 4 and gave up just 1 hit. Liriano has 32 K’s this season in just 22 1/3 innings.

The Twins moved out of 4th place with Cleveland losing again to Detroit. Detroit is a half game out of first and the Twins sit 6.5 games behind Chicago in 3rd. I said I would be elated if the Twins picked up a split in this series and they’ve already accomplished that. Tomorrow we’ll be facing a tough lefty in Mark Buerhle, so I’m not going to predict a Twins victory. However, with the way the Twins have been hitting, I don’t think it’s too unreasonable to think the Twins could win one of the next two games to take 3 of 4 in this series.

Finally, I can’t describe how important Castillo is to this team. Bringing Castillo to Minnesota almost makes up for Terry Ryan’s mistake of signing Tony Batista.

Update: I just heard Dan Gladden name Bradke the #2 star of the game on the postgame show. He then went on to criticize the media for their criticism of Radke this season. He accused them of simply looking at the numbers and claimed that Radke always gives the team a chance to win. How ridiculous a statement that is. Radke has given up 6 runs in 4 of his starts this year. There’s no team that can consistently score more than 6 runs a night. Radke has pitched 4 games where he was unable to get past the 6th inning. Radke has been a huge drag on this team all year and who knows how tonight would’ve gone had Gardy not pulled him in the 6th. Radke has had one decent start all season and that came against Kansas City.

Gladden is right that sometimes numbers are deceiving, but in this case Radke’s 7+ ERA isn’t a result of 1 or 2 bad outings. It’s the result of 5 or 6 of his outings. Numbers don’t lie that much.