Twins In with Win, Wells Out with Gout
September 26, 2006 by Geoff Young
Filed under Games Worth Watching
The Minnesota Twins defeated the Kansas City Royals at the Metrodome on Monday night to clinch a playoff berth. The Twins received strong pitching from Boof Bonser (I really should have included him in my quest for great baseball names), with the offense being provided by Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau, who is enjoying a big-time breakout season.
How much do you think it is burning the powers-that-be that Minneapolis will be represented in the post-season but not Boston? Detroit, but not Chicago? What if Oakland and San Diego make it but Los Angeles doesn’t send either team that includes the city’s name in its title?
I guess they’ll all be hoping for another “Subway Series” — I know there was one of those a few years ago, but I can’t remember when; I just know that I didn’t watch an inning of it. The outcome was predetermined: New York had to win. The rest was details, dig?
In the other race that is still being run, the Padres beat the Cardinals in St. Louis, 6-5. San Diego’s scheduled starter David Wells was scratched due to gout. According to Wikipedia, folks who suffer from gout should be eating foods such as cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and celery, while avoiding the likes of sardines, anchovies, prawns, and alcohol.
Now, before you go ripping on Wells for his case of gout, consider that several of our founding fathers — including Benjamin Franklin — are known to have suffered from the affliction. Heck, even Sir Isaac Newton couldn’t escape gout’s gravity.
(Yes, I’m aware that was terrible. We move on. We were in St. Louis, you will recall…)
On the backs of another strong outing from the bullpen, the Padres won to extend their lead in the National League West to a full 2 games over the idle Dodgers. Meantime, Ben Franklin’s Phillies lost to the Houston Astros, who suddenly and quite shockingly find themselves just 2 1/2 games back of the Cardinals with a week remaining.
In other words, it’s still a muddy situation. Or, to adapt a popular phrase of the day, it’s just baseball being baseball.
