Game 16: Target Field, Minneapolis, MN
Chicago White Sox vs Minnesota Twins – Wednesday, June 19, 2o13
We left Dallas around 9:00 AM and arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport just before noon. We took a shuttle to the hotel, but it was too early to check in and they did not have any rooms for us. So we worked on our Rangers blog in the lobby, eventually checked in, posted the blog, and headed over to the Mall of America, where we had lunch at a really nice Japanese restaurant. Part of the fun was chasing food around our plate with chopsticks. Ah! Just in case you were wondering, there is no Hard Rock Café in the Twin Cities.
We walked around the Mall for a bit and took the light rail to Target Field. Public transportation here is really good and we were dropped off right outside the ballpark. We got there nearly an hour and a half before game time on a beautiful evening. After years of playing inside a dome, the Twins moved to this modern outdoor facility in 2010. As it turns out, this place will be hosting next year’s All Star Game.
As usual, we walked around the outside of the ballpark first and took plenty of pictures of the statues and other displays honoring Twins greats and the franchise’s history. The giant gold glove just outside the gates was really cool! We then went inside Target Field and looked around some more. The grounds crew were still watering the field, putting in chalk lines, and inserting bases at the corners. There was a good crowd on hand today of more than 30,000. Not bad, considering it was a Wednesday evening. We slowly made our way to our seats that were down the right field line close to the foul pole. Soon, we were joined by “Freshman” Dan Maurer ‘16, a member of the Thamattoor lab. Dr. Tyler Morin, a former visiting professor in the Colby chemistry department, also joined us a little later. It was fun to see them outside of Maine.
The game started in style. Alejandro De Aza led off with a home run that landed in the right field stands, not too far from where we were sitting, to put the White Sox up 1-0. That lead would not last long as the Twins put a three spot on the board in the second inning with one swing of Brian Dozier’s bat. He hit a huge shot over the left field wall with men on second and third. Fireworks, and twinkling lights on the Target puppy, greeted the homer. The home team added another run in the next inning via an RBI single to left by Trevor Plouffe that scored Josh Willingham from third. The home team really blew it open in the sixth with another three run outburst against Deunte Heath who had come in to replace starter Chris Sale. The fifth run scored on Willingham’s liner to left that brought in Joe Mauer from second. Then, Justin Morneau launched a two run shot with Willingham on first, for his first homer since late April. This broke the longest home run drought of his career. More fireworks and flashing lights came on to celebrate the home long ball. Staring at a 7-1 deficit, the visitors tried to get back in it. They got a run in the seventh on an RBI single to center by Dayan Viciedo that scored Conor Gillaspie from second, and two more in the eighth on a two RBI single to center by Adam “Biggin” Dunn with men on second and third. The Twins had to bring in their closer, Glen Perkins, in the ninth and he did his job with a 1-2-3 inning to preserve the 7-4 win. This also marked the first time that we saw the home team win on this leg. We are now 1-5 in that category.
During the game we walked around the ballpark and saw the action from different angles. The Twins have a really nice area set aside that describes the history and construction of Target Field. There were also cool displays of tribute to older ballparks and previous versions of the teams here. We also got to go inside the Metropolitan Club which is a really swanky place with all kinds of interesting baseball memorabilia. What fun!
After the game, we took the light rail to the airport and then a shuttle to our hotel. By the time we got back, it was almost midnight. It was clear that we would be getting only a few hours of sleep before having to get up again and fly out to our next stop. We were tired but happy that we got to see another nice game at a new ballpark.
We’ll see you from our next stop. So long!
