Bizarro Baseball World: A Night of Firsts

Here are some things that happened at the Dome last night to make my score card a real fun mess.

Bobby Korecky's first major league at bat.

Bobby Korecky's first major league hit. This was also the first hit by a Twins pitcher in an American League game since the infernal designated hitter rule was adopted back in 1973. Korecky was batting because the Twins had given up the DH by moving their starting DH, Brendan Harris (Yes, Brendan Harris started at DH, which I'm pretty sure was also a first), to second base.

Bobby Korecky's first major league win. (That's Korecky as a collegian in the picture at left). Right place, right time for Korecky, who pitched out of a jam created by Juan Rincon (the Jam Master) in the 11th, then a 1-2-3 12th. Rincon was visited on the mound by the pitching coach in the 11th. During the same at bat, the manager tried to pay a visit to the mound (presumably to change pitchers) but that's a no-no. Gardenhire was stopped by the ump and sheepishly returned to the dugout. First time I've ever seen that.

Alexi Casilla's first major league home run.

Michael Cuddyer's first major league game in center field. He has now played every position except pitcher and catcher. He started in center because Carlos Gomez was hurt and Craig Monroe is old and tired. But Gomez came in to pinch run late in the game, stayed in to play center field (Cuddyer moved to right field), and ended up singling in the 12th and scoring the winning run.

When that run scored, Livan (The Prince) Hernandez was on deck. Livan is a starting pitcher. The Twins had simply run out of position players. If Livan had batted, that would have been another first (two pitchers from same AL team batting in the same AL game in the DH era).

This was also the first game of a very odd Twins marketing effort. For $33.00, you could buy an upper deck general admission ticket that also entitled the bearer to unlimited concessions (except beer) throughout the game. That the game went 12 innings (four hours) was a bonus for the many fans who bought those tickets.

A bizarre experience from start to finish.