82nd Loss

The Twins suffered their 82nd loss of the season, dooming them to a sub-.500 record, to the Red Sox, 5-2. Kevin Slowey took his first career loss in an okay start, Justin Morneau hit his 31st home run of the season, and Jason Kubel reached base three times. I also would like to acknowledge Matthew LeCroy's double and the fact that he allowed no stolen bases today because I have been pretty hard on him. After another hitless game for Nick Punto, Garrett Jones raised his batting average above Punto's in what has been a very good September for Jones. He has now hit .324/.378/.529 for the month, after batting .125/.186/.200 in his first seventeen games at the major league level. This upswing in performance is promising, and it will be interesting to see its effect on the Twins' attitude towards Jones in the offseason and next year.

That's pretty much all I have for this disappointing loss, other than that the Orioles scored three runs in the ninth off of Mariano Rivera to tie the game, and won it in the tenth, handing Boston the American League East division title.

So now I move to local happenings. The Amherst College intramural soccer scene now features a very good team by the name of Ronaldinho. They defeated BBC United in their first game 5-0 in a show of complete domination. In fact, says Generic MCKS, a member of the team, "We completely dominated them." Their goalie, Zoit, obviously played well, and added, "I had like 35 saves." Generic had one goal, but it was An Zolo who scored a hat trick in the game. Overall, the game just wasn't competitive. This, perhaps, is due to a flawed ranking system, where teams may put themselves in whatever level they choose. Ronaldinho is in the intermediate level, but intramural soccer director Feric Shoeman points out, "They should probably be in advanced." Either way, the team is entertaining. Eagle, a fan of the team and floormate of several team members, stated, "I just love watching Ronaldinho."