I was at the game. It was good and exciting, except that Eddie Guardado almost blew the save. With two outs and no-body on, he gave up two hits, and then walked a batter to load the bases. Then some Boston moron hit a double to left to bring the tying run into scoring position. When Eddie finally got a groundball to end the inning, Christian Guzman made a terrible throw that pulled Doug Mientkiewicz off the bag, but the gold-glover kept his foot on to save the game. Eddie had previously questioned the Twins intensity, and here it is from the horses mouth:
MINNEAPOLIS -- Talking about intensity isn't just lip service to Twins closer Eddie Guardado. It's the backbone of his approach to the game.
During a lackluster 11-14 start in the first month of the season, Guardado openly questioned his team's lack of intensity. He and reliever LaTroy Hawkins also led a players only meeting last month in New York to address concerns.
Minnesota entered Sunday off to a 7-2 May. Just as important, the missing spark appears to be back. Guardado is the first to offer praise -- only he isn't exactly sure where it came from.
"I don't know what clicked," Guardado said. "You can't really put your finger on it."
Offensively, the Twins have raised their team batting average from .247 to .265 and are hitting .311 for the month. That's second in baseball to only Seattle with .313.
"Before it was early, but you still didn't feel the intensity there. Now you do," said Guardado, a Twin since 1993. "Look at the game yesterday. Even though we lost (6-5 to Boston), it was a great ballgame. If we continue on doing that, we're going to win a lot more ballgames. You feel the intensity there, but you feel guys are more relaxed and having fun."