With all due respect to Justin Morneau’s 9th inning, game winning blast into baggy-land today against the Brewers, the real highlight of today’s Milwaukee/Minnesota tilt occured a half inning earlier. Lew Ford — substituting for Torri Hunter (above) after the slick fielding CF was hit on the left hand in the first inning had a career high 4 RBI’s for the Twins, but was responsible for a pair of fielding gaffes that enabled the Brewers to tie the game at 9-9. The first of said miscues took place on a Prince Fielder flyball that Ford lost in the Homerdome’s roof, resulting in the first inside the park home run of the 262 pound Fielder’s brief career. Minutes later, Ford had trouble getting rid of the ball Craig Counsell’s sac fly, allowing Bill Hall to score from the third with Milwaukee’s 9th run of the game.
While the Mets send El Duque to the hill against Chien-Ming Wang and the Yankees tonight, the Amazin’s picked up a half game on Atlanta, as the Indians’ Fausto Carmona Not Glue held the Braves to 5 hits in Cleveland’s 5-2 win at the Jake. The Tribe’s Casey Blake extended his hitting streak to 26 games, the longest in the big leagues this year, while Chipper Jones impregnated his 2000th Hooters Waitress collected his 2000th career hit. Jason Michaels and Grady Sizemore each made terrific diving catches in suport of Caromona (8-2, 3.12 ERA).
The Rangers’ Kevin Millwood picked up his first win since April 13 despite allowing a pair of homers to the much-talked-about Adam Dunn , going 6 innings in Texas’ 11-4 defeat of Cincinnati. Death Wish’s brutal 2007 got a little bit worse, as the former Red Sox starter (above) gave up 7 runs (6 earned) in 6 innings, while dropping his record to 2-8.