Friday: The Roundup

MLB: Twins 6, Detroit 5 - It's good to know that there's a team in baseball that has worse problems in the bullpen than the Twins. Detroit's relievers pitched twelve innings in the three-game series, giving up an Ayala-like 15 runs in the process - including six runs to the Twins in the seventh inning of this one, after Justin Verlander had more or less dominated Minnesota through six and a third. Of those 19 outs that Verlander got, 13 were strikeouts; he was nigh-unhittable until the seventh. In the seventh, though, the Twins put together a one-out Buscher single and a Punto walk to chase Verlander. Detroit's Bobby Seay came in and promptly doused the flames in gasoline, giving up a Span single and then walking Tolbert with the bases full to plate a run. Mauer drove in a run with a ground-ball out, but two-out hits from Morneau, Kubel, and Crede - with a walk in between the latter two from Cuddyer - drove in four more. Seay ended up allowing both inherited runners plus four more runs to score, enough to give the Twins the win. Scott Baker pulled his usual Jekyll and Hyde routine - he faced the minimum 15 hitters through five innings, erasing the only hit via a double play... and then fell apart, allowing six hits - four with two out - and five runs. Ultimately, though, it didn't matter; the only thing less effective than Scott Baker after five innings, is the Tiger bullpen.

AA: Saints open season with wild, ugly loss - Speaking of bullpen problems: the St. Paul Saints, everybody! In their 2009 opener, St. Paul dropped a 13-12 decision in 10 innings to Sioux Falls, after leading 12-10 heading into the top of the ninth. Former Atlanta Brave (and Minnesota Gopher) Kerry Ligtenberg gave up back-to-back doubles with two outs in the ninth to allow the Canaries to tie the score. And in the tenth, the Saints' Mike Bille walked a hitter, wild-pitched him around to third (once while trying to intentionally walk a hitter), then allowed the game-winning single. (Detroit is likely on the phone to both, wanting to know how soon they can be in a Tigers uniform.)