Crew chief Tim Tschida admitted that left field umpire Phil Cuzzi blew a key call in the 11th inning of the Twins' Game 2 loss to the Yankees.
In the half-inning before New York's Mark Teixeira scraped his walk-off home run over the left-field wall, Twins catcher Joe Mauer sent a bloop down the line that deflected off of left fielder Melky Cabrera's glove and then bounced in fair territory. Either way, the ball was fair. Only Cuzzi ruled that it wasn't, stripping a leadoff double from the Twins' MVP candidate.
"[He] saw the ball as foul, called what he saw," Tschida said. "Afterwards, like any close play, we went in and we looked at it and it's a clear indication that an incorrect decision was rendered."
NEW YORK -- It was bound to happen, probably sooner before later. The Minnesota Twins couldn't keep flying high on adrenaline and spunk, could they? This was a mismatch of gargantuan proportions, the mighty uber-rich Yankees against a sweet little team from the Midwest that barely squeaked into the playoffs at the very last second. The Twins couldn't possibly continue to rock and shock the baseball world, could they?
Not on this night, no. Not with CC Sabathia, the Yankees ace, rested and frothing at the chance to prove he can indeed carry the sport's wealthiest, most stacked club all the way to the finish line. Not with Derek Jeter, Captain America, eager to prove last season's postseason absence was an embarrassing, once-in-his-lifetime fluke.
But besides his fine season -- 89 runs scored, 96 RBI, .823 OPS -- Abreu seems to have passed on his patience at the plate to the rest of his Angels teammates.
"He's got the younger players understanding patience isn't a bad thing," Chone Figgins told FanHouse. "It's not about not being aggressive, but being patient, getting a pitch to hit. There's nothing wrong with being 1-1 and hitting, or 1-2, or 2-2.
"It's not something simple to do, but I think we did a good job of it in spring training and have tried to bring it into the season and have so far done a good job."
MINNEAPOLIS -- Ron Gardenhire came off the field Friday night singing Earth, Wind and Fire to himself:
"You're a shining star, no matter who you are."
That's been true this week for Gardenhire's Twins.
Since Monday, when Minnesota declared star cleanup hitter Justin Morneau out for the season because of a stress fracture in his lower back, the Twins have made up 2 1/2 games on the Tigers to turn the AL Central into a race.
After his team blew a 10-run lead and eventually lost the game when Michael Cuddyer, the potential tying run, was wrongly called out at the plate on Monday, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was obviously a little upset. A day later, he had a solution: more instant replay.
Specifically, Gardenhire wanted to see an NFL-like system in which managers could throw out a "red flag" to ask for a review.
"I've said all along that I want a red flag [like in the NFL," Gardenhire said. "If you use it and you're wrong, you don't get to use it the rest of the game.
If you use it and you're right, you get your red flag back and that would save a lot of money [for ejections]."
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That umpire Todd Tichenor made quite a name for himself in a big league cameo as a vacation replacement. Tichenor, a 32-year-old Triple-A ump, ejected both managers and both starting catchers in one inning of the Red Sox-Twins game on Thursday afternoon.
"Sometimes, those things happen -- everybody handles thing differently," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "It looked like he had his hands full today."
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was tossed for the 43rd time in his career. An expert on ejections, he said that Tichenor acted too quickly. Tichenor did not make himself available to the media to explain himself.
In the top of the seventh, Twins catcher Mike Redmond argued with Tichenor after he called Jeff Bailey safe at home. Redmond got ejected, and then Gardenhire got ejected when he came out. In the bottom of the inning, Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett and catcher Jason Varitek both expressed their displeasure at not getting a called third strike. Tichenor ejected Varitek and then Francona, who came out to defend his catcher.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That the Indians are trying to find rock bottom.
"It would be nice to win some of these games," pitcher Cliff Lee said. "I think a lot of them we could have won if we had done some things a little different."
Cleveland has lost four straight games to fall to 14-26, blowing leads in three of them, including a seven-run lead last Friday and a four-run lead Tuesday.
The latter included letting a three-run lead in the ninth inning at Kansas City evaporate, as closer Kerry Wood (right) allowed two homers and a triple in a four-run rally.
BALTIMORE -- Joe Mauer returned to the Twins lineup less than a week ago after missing the first month of the season with an inflamed sacroiliac joint in his back, but manager Ron Gardenhire has already penciled backup catcher Mike Redmond into the lineup twice since Mauer came off the disabled list.
So what gives?
Wallowing below .500 and ranked 12th in the American League in runs, you would think that the Twins would want to get Mauer's ever so valuable bat into the lineup as much as possible after going without it for so long.
NEW YORK -- It was bound to happen, probably sooner before later. The 
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