Oh Danny Boy
In his first season as a major league starter Daniel Bard notched his first win — but it was as a reliever. I suppose this shouldn’t be too shocking in this topsy-turvy season. Bard toed the rubber in the eighth like he used and his team broke its five-game losing streak.
The score was 5-5 going into the ninth, which is unusually high-scoring on the Twins’ part. Minnesota is 11th in the American League in runs and 12th in slugging percentage. Ryan Doumit smacked his first double of the season in the fourth to plate two runs and Danny Valencia launched his first homer of the year immediately afterwards to give his team the lead.
The Twins added to their lead in the fifth in a fashion more typical of their brand of baseball: leadoff base on balls by Trevor Plouffe, Denard Span single on which Plouffe advanced to third, and a run scored on Jamey Carroll’s 6-4-3 double play.
Not only did Carroll ground into a scoring double play but he was part of a dazzling twin killing in the sixth. Plouffe tumbled after David Ortiz’s sharp grounder up the middle and flipped to Carroll. Carroll niftily handled the relay and twisted quickly to throw to Justin Morneau.
That move showed more grace and aplomb than Bobby Valentine in the ninth. With one down and a runner on first Plouffe hit a towering fly ball to left that sounded like a home run off the bat. Valentine trotted out of the dugout to visit Alfredo Aceves like a chaperone at a high school dance trying to keep slow dancing teens from being too close to one another. It’s no use mollycoddling hormonal teenyboppers or major league closers
In sum: Cody Ross is boss.
| Game 15: April 23, 2012 | ||
 Boston Red Sox5-10 |
6 |
W: Daniel Bard (1-2) S: Alfredo Aceves (3) |
| 2B: Ryan Sweeney (8) HR: Jarrod Saltalamacchia (2), Cody Ross – 2 (5) | ||
| Minnesota Twins 5-12 |
5 |
L: Matt Capps (0-1) |
| 2B: Ryan Doumit (1) HR: Danny Valencia (1) | ||
