TWINS TO PLAY RANGERS 162 TIMES NEXT YEAR

Remember growing up and playing ball as a kid? Remember those teams, whether you were on them or playing them, who were soooo bad that their defensive innings seemed to just go on and on and on and on? Like they'd seriously have two outs for upwards of 45 minutes. The pitcher just walking fools left and right. The second baseman looked like he had hands made of carbonite. The coach hiding his face as well as his flask in his hat as ulcer after crippling ulcer consumed what was left of his black morbid soul? Yeah, the Texas Rangers are that team. I mean, seriously, holy shit they looked bad last night.

Alexi Casilla brought Gomez home by beating out a grounder to short, and went to third on Joe Mauer's double. Mathis did get Justin Morneau on a line drive to short, and Michael Cuddyer followed with a grounder to German Duran at third. Casilla broke for home, and Duran threw him out with a strike to catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Mauer tried to go to third on the play, and Saltalamacchia did not throw a strike back to Duran. Instead, he bounced his throw and it went into left field, allowing another run to score.

That's another thing teams that suck like to do, throw the ball around until everyone on base scores. They just don't know when to quit. Most of these kids grow up to be alcoholics. Or dog kickers.

In other news, Ron Gardenhire apparently showed up to the Dome drunk on Monday.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is well aware of the rule that a team cannot make two visits to the mound during the same at-bat.

Gardenhire's near-blunder came after Rincon had fallen behind, 2-0, to Ramon Vazquez with one out in the 11th. That's when the skipper charged out of the dugout, heading toward the mound to take Rincon out of the game. Before he got even halfway to the third-base line, however, Gardenhire turned around just as quickly and headed back to the dugout.

You know, for a guy whose job it is to sit on the bench, wear a funny looking jacket, and adjust your balls every 5-7 minutes, you'd think he could remember this rule.