After an up-and-down start to the 2006 campaign, the Minnesota Twins hoped to settle in and recapture the AL Central crown. Alas, through May and into one fateful June night in the Pacific Northwest, the endeavor looked more bottoming-out than regrouped-contender.
Heading into a Twinkie Town After Dark ™ contest with the Seattle Mariners on 6/7/06 (more on that momentarily), not much outside of the always-solid Johan Santana, metronomic Joe Mauer, and newcomer Luis Castillo was working.
Remember the
guys meant to inject some pop into the lineup after ‘05’s punchless group? Well, Tony Batista was sitting at a .241 BA & .398 SLG, while Rondell White was somehow even worse—perhaps historically so: .193 BA, .436 OPS, 0 HR despite everyday play.
Cristian Guzman SS heir-apparent Juan Castro was another lineup liability at .238 BA & .576 OPS. Touted power prodigy Justin Morneau did have 11 bombs, but with a less-than-stellar .236 BA & .747 OPS that would soon prompt a “come to Jesus” meeting with skipper Ron Gardenhire.
Outside of should-have-been-Cy Santana, the starting pitching was in similar shambles:
- Brad Radke: 12 GS, 6.42 ERA
- Kyle Lohse: 8 GS, 8.92 ERA
- Carlos Silva: 9 GS and some relief appearances, 7.76 ERA
This was all leading to the night of June 6, a game I will never forget watching on TV.
After the Mariners battered Boof Bonser, Willie Eyre, & Dennys Reyes to gain a huge early lead, the Twins mounted an epic comeback—capped by a Michael Cuddyer grand slam in the 8th inning to tie the contest at 9-9!
After a few scoreless frames (for a change) in this wild affair, in B11 Twins RP Jesse Crain—my noted irrational nemesis, since usurped by Justin Topa—needed just one more out to give MN bats another crack at victory.
Instead: a mammoth Carl Everett home run that gave the M’s a walk-off victory and sent me into a profane rage that would have made Jerry Burns blush.
After that soul-crushing loss, the Twins sat at 25-33—buried in fourth place in the AL Central & a whopping 11.5 GB the front-running Detroit Tigers. Instead of the ‘05 mediocrity feeling like a blip, it now seemed to indicate a trend. Roughly four months of games remained on the ’06 schedule, but it would seemingly take a miracle to dig out of such a large early deficit and make a true division championship run.
