Youneverknow

Former big-league pitcher Joaquin Andujar was really onto something with this profound comment about the game of baseball. Paul Abbott, condemned on this page and elsewhere as a Who-Dat scrubeenie not good enough to stick with the bottom-feeding Devil Rays, tossed five scoreless innings today and kept the Phils close enough to steal one late from the Twins and take two of three in Minnesota with a 2-1 win. Billy Wagner officially announced his return from the DL, stranding the tying run at second by striking out the Twins first baseman, Doug Minky (I'm not trying that last name), and finally the tough Matt LeCroy after an epic 13-pitch at-bat. Doesn't seem like the pitchers win too many of those... generally I think the more foul balls a hitter generates within a long at-bat, the more likely it is that he'll eventually connect. But Wagner, as we've seen, is not your normal pitcher.

As for the Twins, my favorite AL team, it was almost like all the Phils' bugaboos migrated into the other dugout to beset them: a great pitching performance by Brad Radke wasted (evidently not for the first time this season... I have this image of Rad and Randy Wolf sitting at the bar somewhere in Dinkytown, throwing back shots and complaining about never getting run support), scads of guys left on base (I think they stranded 11 on the day), bedevilment by a pitcher with less than sterling credentials (though they did smack Abbott around just two weeks ago, in his final appearance with Tampa Bay). Torii Hunter did rob Jim Thome of a three-run homer that would have likely iced the game and given Big Jim his 400th for his career, though Thome is probably just as happy to get the chance to reach the milestone in front of the home fans at CBP.

On the whole, I'll take the 3-2 swing through the exotic venues of Comiskey and the HumphreyDome. Phils come home trailing the Marlins by just 1.5 games, with Wolf and Padilla hopefully due to return to action within a week or so.