Mrs. DCTF and I hosted her parents out here for the 4th of July.  It’s hard to top D.C. for the 4th of July.  Fireworks on the steps of the Lincoln…  oooh ahhh indeed. 

Of course, in order to get such primo seats I had to make my way to the Mall long before the end of the Twins’ game on Saturday.  My father-in-law (FIL) and I headed down, while Mrs. DCTF and MIL stayed back for a while.  When they arrived the first thing I did was ask Mrs. DCTF the score.  Sadly, she had left just after Detroit pulled ahead.  This spurred a conversation about whether or not Detroit could hold on.  I pointed out that the night before Detroit had showed some big time inability to put a game away.  They were up by 6 runs twice and couldn’t close the door.  They got a lead in extra-innings and let the Twins tie it up again.  And even when they got the three-run lead the Twinkies managed to get another one back.

So I had faith.  And after a wonderful night of fireworks and patriotism and cheering for Americana, it was great to see baseball come through too.  Even if the biggest catalyst on Saturday was some guy from Canada…  Ah well.  We’ll give Justin the Hero anyway.

And I felt so bad for Nick Blackburn losing his shut-out again that I’m going to give him Sunday’s award.  But I’m going to caution him that if he makes it to that situation again and fails, I won’t be so lenient.  Maybe he could talk to Nathan about door-shutting?

Season total: Mauer 8, Morneau 5, Blackburn 4, Crede 4,  Nathan 4, Cuddy 3, Kubel 3, Slowey 2, Span 2, Casilla 1, Gomez 1, Harris 1, Perkins 1, Swarzak 1, Tolbert 1, Young 1, Gardy 1