[2009 Baseball Tour] Part 5: Busch Stadium (Minnesota Twins at St. Louis Cardinals)
"Can't... sleep... Pujols will eat me... Can't... sleep... Pujols will eat me..."
Yep, that was pretty much the story of the game. And the extreme heat. XD;
Before the game:
-I found a really cheap rate for a hotel around the St. Louis area, so rather than risking oversleeping, traffic, overestimating how fast I could get there, and just general getting lost, I made a beeline to a town near StL last night. I woke up to see the Dragons won their 5th straight. ^_^
-Left for the park ridiculously early, but it gave me time to check out the park with the Gateway Arch. ^_^ Hung out in the museum they had under the arch for about a half hour. I would have gone up to the top, but I'm not gonna pay $24, not when I am still jobless. XD;
-Went to the stadium and tried to stay in the shade. The heat was killer; more on this later.
-Found my seat, and sadly, it was under the sun the whole game. >.<; But I made sure to escape to the shade several times during the game, and from the looks of things (at least right now; we'll see how I feel tomorrow) I escaped getting sunburnt.
-Luckily, throughout the game there were several water stations set up; I made sure to take advantage whenever possible.
-Today was Six Flags Day, complete with appearances by the WB crew (which probably makes a lot of my FL go "XD!"), as well as Christian something-or-other Day (which probably makes a lot of my FL go ">_>;"). XD; But enough of that, today's matchup: The Twins' Kevin Slowey vs. the Cardinals' Todd Wellemeyer. Slowey went into the game 10-2 with an ERA around 4, and Wellemeyer went into the game 6-7 with an ERA approaching 6. No way the Cards could win, right?
FIRST PITCH TEMPERATURE: 92 F
Top 1st: After Wellemeyer got the first two out, he walked Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel, but he got Michael Cuddyer to ground out to end the inning.
Bottom 1st: First batter, Skip Schumaker? Leadoff double to the right-center gap. Second batter, Colby Rasumus? Fouled out to Mike Redmond. (Joe Mauer had the day off). Third batter, Albert Pujols? ...BAM! Right into the Twins bullpen. That's all they would get. 2-0 Cardinals
Top 2nd: The Twins would strike back here. With one out, Redmond walked, and Matt Freakin' Tolbert followed it up with a hit. Up next was Kevin Slowey, and he was unable to move the runners over (I hate no-DH baseball!). But after a walk to Denard Span, Brendan Harris hit a blooper that was JUST BARELY out of Chris Duncan's reach. But since it was a 2-out situation and all runners were going, all 3 were able to score on the play! Sadly, Justin Morneau couldn't follow it up, as he swing at a ridiculously high fastball. XD; 3-2 Twins
Top 3rd: After retreating to the shade for the bottom of the 2nd, I return to my seat for the 3rd, to see Cuddy hit a 1-out double, followed by a single by Joe Crede (Cuddy was held at 3rd, only for the ball to get by the catcher so that Crede could go to 2nd; Cuddy still couldn't advance). And guess what, Wellemeyer's done! Enter Josh Kinney. (Sadly, it isn't former Twin Matt Kinney. More on former Twins on the Cards later.) He got a pair of groundouts, including one by Redmond that got Cuddy out at home.
Bottom 3rd: AL-BEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTT!!! Add a Joe Thurston strikeout in front, and just about the same thing happened as in the 1st inning. Schumaker gets on, and Albert destroys a pitch. Even more than he did the other pitch! From there, Slowey got in a lot of trouble, loading the bases with 2 out, and then hitting Tyler Greene at what looked like the brim of the helmet to add another Cards run. XD; Luckily the pitcher spot was up next, and Slowey got him out, but that was it for Slowey, as he would be pinch-hit for next inning. 5-3 Cardinals
Bottom 4th: Notable here: Thurston started off the inning with a triple, but two outs later (YES! They got Schumaker out!) Here comes Pujols again... and the Twins do the smart thing and decide to walk him. XP But it ended up working, as the Cards got nothing.
Top 5th: At about this time I start just looking for shade every other half-inning, as the heat really started to pick up. The game was moving a long at a snails' pace at this point, but it would pick up for the rest of the game from here; still managing to finish in under 3 hours.
Top 7th: In the top of the 6th, I decided to brave the sun until the 7th-inning stretch. Which I did. But here, Pujols made a FUCKING AWESOME diving catch + throw out from his back. That fukken saved former Twin Dennys Reyes, who was cut from the Twins last offseason. The other former Twin on the Cards: Kyle Lohse, who found his career's 2nd wind in St. Louis after failing in Minnesota and Philly, but was on the DL.
End 7th: I notice that the seat by the aisle was unused for about 5 innings (there were guys there initially; they probably tried to sneak into the lower level later on), and it was the only one in my row that was in the shade. So I used it for the rest of the game, and not once was asked to move. ^_^
Bottom 8th: Sean Henn got into a jam here, but "Tricky" R.A. Dickey got out of it thanks to his knuckleball inducing the inning-ending double play.
Top 9th: I'm not even sure if we had a baserunner since the 2nd (checked; from the 5th on no hits and only one baserunner). But anyways, it was the 9th, and the bottom of the order, so Joe Mauer came up. But he grounded out, just like everyone else did this inning. XD; FINAL SCORE: Cardinals 5, Twins 3
GAME-END TEMPERATURE: 98 F
There was talk of this game getting moved to the night to evade the heat, but the Cards and MLB decided against it, partly due to protecting the MLB on FOX game(s)'s time slot,and partly due to not wanting the post-game Christian rock concert (which I did not stick around for) to go into the night. After the game I just lumbered to my car (luckily I parked in a covered ramp ^_^) and went to the airport, completely dehydrated. XD; ...And sorry, pyroh, geronkizan, tropicanaomega, hedgesmfg, and other Cubs fans on my FL, we just couldn't get it done. ^_~
And here are 106 pictures from the game and the nearby park (including the arch). Most of the pics are from the game, but there's quite a bit from the museum under the arch too. I'd write more, but I'm just so burned out. XD; I'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow if I want to do anything, but I'm without a car until Monday (I took a rental over since I'm flying to Minneapolis from here), so that would complicate matters.
UP NEXT: The final stop of the 2009 tour, Kansas City, to see the Royals take on the Twins on Monday! This one will also be a scorcher, but luckily it's a night game. ^_^
Yep, that was pretty much the story of the game. And the extreme heat. XD;
Before the game:
-I found a really cheap rate for a hotel around the St. Louis area, so rather than risking oversleeping, traffic, overestimating how fast I could get there, and just general getting lost, I made a beeline to a town near StL last night. I woke up to see the Dragons won their 5th straight. ^_^
-Left for the park ridiculously early, but it gave me time to check out the park with the Gateway Arch. ^_^ Hung out in the museum they had under the arch for about a half hour. I would have gone up to the top, but I'm not gonna pay $24, not when I am still jobless. XD;
-Went to the stadium and tried to stay in the shade. The heat was killer; more on this later.
-Found my seat, and sadly, it was under the sun the whole game. >.<; But I made sure to escape to the shade several times during the game, and from the looks of things (at least right now; we'll see how I feel tomorrow) I escaped getting sunburnt.
-Luckily, throughout the game there were several water stations set up; I made sure to take advantage whenever possible.
-Today was Six Flags Day, complete with appearances by the WB crew (which probably makes a lot of my FL go "XD!"), as well as Christian something-or-other Day (which probably makes a lot of my FL go ">_>;"). XD; But enough of that, today's matchup: The Twins' Kevin Slowey vs. the Cardinals' Todd Wellemeyer. Slowey went into the game 10-2 with an ERA around 4, and Wellemeyer went into the game 6-7 with an ERA approaching 6. No way the Cards could win, right?
FIRST PITCH TEMPERATURE: 92 F
Top 1st: After Wellemeyer got the first two out, he walked Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel, but he got Michael Cuddyer to ground out to end the inning.
Bottom 1st: First batter, Skip Schumaker? Leadoff double to the right-center gap. Second batter, Colby Rasumus? Fouled out to Mike Redmond. (Joe Mauer had the day off). Third batter, Albert Pujols? ...BAM! Right into the Twins bullpen. That's all they would get. 2-0 Cardinals
Top 2nd: The Twins would strike back here. With one out, Redmond walked, and Matt Freakin' Tolbert followed it up with a hit. Up next was Kevin Slowey, and he was unable to move the runners over (I hate no-DH baseball!). But after a walk to Denard Span, Brendan Harris hit a blooper that was JUST BARELY out of Chris Duncan's reach. But since it was a 2-out situation and all runners were going, all 3 were able to score on the play! Sadly, Justin Morneau couldn't follow it up, as he swing at a ridiculously high fastball. XD; 3-2 Twins
Top 3rd: After retreating to the shade for the bottom of the 2nd, I return to my seat for the 3rd, to see Cuddy hit a 1-out double, followed by a single by Joe Crede (Cuddy was held at 3rd, only for the ball to get by the catcher so that Crede could go to 2nd; Cuddy still couldn't advance). And guess what, Wellemeyer's done! Enter Josh Kinney. (Sadly, it isn't former Twin Matt Kinney. More on former Twins on the Cards later.) He got a pair of groundouts, including one by Redmond that got Cuddy out at home.
Bottom 3rd: AL-BEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTT!!! Add a Joe Thurston strikeout in front, and just about the same thing happened as in the 1st inning. Schumaker gets on, and Albert destroys a pitch. Even more than he did the other pitch! From there, Slowey got in a lot of trouble, loading the bases with 2 out, and then hitting Tyler Greene at what looked like the brim of the helmet to add another Cards run. XD; Luckily the pitcher spot was up next, and Slowey got him out, but that was it for Slowey, as he would be pinch-hit for next inning. 5-3 Cardinals
Bottom 4th: Notable here: Thurston started off the inning with a triple, but two outs later (YES! They got Schumaker out!) Here comes Pujols again... and the Twins do the smart thing and decide to walk him. XP But it ended up working, as the Cards got nothing.
Top 5th: At about this time I start just looking for shade every other half-inning, as the heat really started to pick up. The game was moving a long at a snails' pace at this point, but it would pick up for the rest of the game from here; still managing to finish in under 3 hours.
Top 7th: In the top of the 6th, I decided to brave the sun until the 7th-inning stretch. Which I did. But here, Pujols made a FUCKING AWESOME diving catch + throw out from his back. That fukken saved former Twin Dennys Reyes, who was cut from the Twins last offseason. The other former Twin on the Cards: Kyle Lohse, who found his career's 2nd wind in St. Louis after failing in Minnesota and Philly, but was on the DL.
End 7th: I notice that the seat by the aisle was unused for about 5 innings (there were guys there initially; they probably tried to sneak into the lower level later on), and it was the only one in my row that was in the shade. So I used it for the rest of the game, and not once was asked to move. ^_^
Bottom 8th: Sean Henn got into a jam here, but "Tricky" R.A. Dickey got out of it thanks to his knuckleball inducing the inning-ending double play.
Top 9th: I'm not even sure if we had a baserunner since the 2nd (checked; from the 5th on no hits and only one baserunner). But anyways, it was the 9th, and the bottom of the order, so Joe Mauer came up. But he grounded out, just like everyone else did this inning. XD; FINAL SCORE: Cardinals 5, Twins 3
GAME-END TEMPERATURE: 98 F
There was talk of this game getting moved to the night to evade the heat, but the Cards and MLB decided against it, partly due to protecting the MLB on FOX game(s)'s time slot,and partly due to not wanting the post-game Christian rock concert (which I did not stick around for) to go into the night. After the game I just lumbered to my car (luckily I parked in a covered ramp ^_^) and went to the airport, completely dehydrated. XD; ...And sorry, pyroh, geronkizan, tropicanaomega, hedgesmfg, and other Cubs fans on my FL, we just couldn't get it done. ^_~
And here are 106 pictures from the game and the nearby park (including the arch). Most of the pics are from the game, but there's quite a bit from the museum under the arch too. I'd write more, but I'm just so burned out. XD; I'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow if I want to do anything, but I'm without a car until Monday (I took a rental over since I'm flying to Minneapolis from here), so that would complicate matters.
UP NEXT: The final stop of the 2009 tour, Kansas City, to see the Royals take on the Twins on Monday! This one will also be a scorcher, but luckily it's a night game. ^_^