There was a point in last night's game between the Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Royals where you suspected that the game might be about to turn around in favor of the home team. In the top of the seventh, the bottom of the Twins lineup had started the inning off with four straight singles, scoring a run and leaving the bases loaded with nobody out. With the top of the order coming up, it looked like the situation was right for the Twins to break the game open.
Instead, Carlos Gomez, Matt Tolbert and Joe Mauer strung together three of the worst at bats you'll ever see in a major league game. Gomez flailed wildly at three pitches out of the strike zone, Tolbert popped up in the infield, and Mauer watched a fastball go right down the middle of the plate for strike three.
Then, the Royals came to bat to find Boof Bonser taken out of the game after sic shutout innings. If there was ever a time when it seemed like momentum had switched in a baseball game, this was it.
But no, Matt Guerrier put the Royals down easily in the seventh and the Twins cruised from there to a 2 - 0 win.
Momentum in team sports is a concept that gets bandied about by commenters and fans from time to time. And in a basketball game where a big defensive play leads to a scoring run, or in football where a defensive stand sparks an offensive drive, it's easy to think that such a thing actually exists.
But it doesn't work that way in baseball, where the defensive team controls the ball, and defense and offense are so dramatically different from each other. In baseball, the only momentum that counts is the momentum coming off the pitchers arm, and what hitters do with it.
Stat of the season, so far: In their first eleven games, Twins starting pitchers have thrown 67 innings and walked only seven batters, by far the best in the league.
Player of the game: Boof Bonser
