Well, if the Twins do have an abundance of outfielders, it certainly helps now
with Torii likely being suspended. For those of you not watching the Twins game
v. Indians tonight - here is a summary (my own combined with Star Tribune's):

In the second inning, Indian pitcher Danny Baez hit Twins catcher AJ Pierzynski
with a pitch. The right-hander had hit three batters in 103 innings coming in.
Then, in the fifth inning, Torii Hunter was slammed really hard in the ribs by a
pitch and immediately dropped to the ground. After getting up, Hunter pushed
past third-base coach Al Newman and catcher Einar Diaz to get to the ball. The
All-Star center fielder then fired it - as hard as he could - directly at Baez,
who appeared to be hit in the leg but was not hurt. Hunter was immediately
ejected by plate umpire Ted Barrett and will likely face disciplinary action by
the commissioner's office. Both benches and bullpens emptied and the umpiring
crew met with both managers before play resumed.


Now, after homers by Ortiz, Mohr (who is 3 for 4 tonight), and Rivas, the score
is currently 8-5 in the top of the 9th.

I want to say one thing, though, about Hunter being hit:

Torii was just slammed in the ribs by a ball being thrown 90+ mph, and I'm sure
he wasn't thinking very clearly. On the other hand, he was sticking up for
himself and his teammates, proving that they will not just stand by and be hit
by pitches. Hunter usually keeps his emotions in check (or at least grabs hold
of himself pretty quickly), but he's only human.

I will be out of town for the next three weeks, so fortunately, I won't see the
outrage that I'm sure will arise from Indians and Twins fans alike. As a result,
I've set up a poll about whether people think his response was approrpriate.

Vote here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustForTwins/polls



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