Late night: Twins 9, Giants 2

In just 25 pitches, Madison Bumgarner's ERA
inflated from 3.21 to 4.06.

Box score here.

Game story here.

Madison Bumgarner is now 3-9 on the season. He is, in truth, a really good young pitcher who had a really bad start on Tuesday night.

This game was decided, really, before I turned the game on. The first eight Twins got hits, alternating singles and doubles. All eight scored, the first time that's happened in the majors since 1990.

Cleveland and Detroit both lost Tuesday; the White Sox won. The Twins are now 6.5 games behind the Indians, 5.5 behind the Tigers, 2 back of the Sox.

A few random comments:

*Late in the game, Joe Mauer had a Joe Mauer double to the gap in left-center. That was maybe the first time I've seen him drive a ball the opposite way since his return.

*Tsuyoshi Nishioka went deep into the hole for a nice fielding play but didn't get off a strong enough throw to get the out. Bert Blyleven shrugged it off, saying his back foot slipped. Blyleven said Nishioka has enough arm for shortstop, but I don't regard him as a truly objective observer.

*At least Nishi reached that ball. Miguel Tejada played short for the Giants, and displayed minimal -- or non-existent -- range. Why Tejada and not former Mankato MoonDog Brandon Crawford, of whom I wrote a bit more than a week ago? Because in his last nine games he's 3-for-30, all singles, with one walk.

Crawford is a superior defender to Tejada, but he's got to contribute something with the bat. (But then, so does Tejada, whose on-base and slugging percentages are both below .300.)