Let's talk about that Memorial Day game in Minneapolis that will go down in franchise lore. We live in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka, so the Astros' annual visit to Target Field is much anticipated. This year it worked out that Monday's game was the only one I could make, since work conflicts with both Tuesday evening and Wednesday's afternoon getaway game.
Some more or less chronological observations:
1) We get there early - me, wife, daughter age 6, and daughter age-almost-4. We eat at the Red Cow in centerfield. We get turkey burgers. They are amazing. If you ever go to a game at Target Field, that's a good play.
2) My wife cares not for sports or baseball, but even she comments on the noticable number of rainbow gut jerseys milling about. She grew up in Minnesota and so has no idea of the history. To her they are simply bizarre and inexplicable.
3) We get to our seats in the upper bowl on the first base side. Daughter age 6 informs me that she is a Twins fan. I blame the whole "she goes to elementary school in Minnesota with kids who love the Twins" thing. I ponder this, but ultimately accept it. Every kid should cheer for their hometown team, and we are probably in Minnesota for the long haul, so there it is. Daughter age-almost-4 has an Astros dress on. She still thinks that whatever I like is cool. Her Astros fandom is mitigated by her insistence that, "being in the audience is no fun." It is going to be a long afternoon.
4) Correa's 4th inning home run is little remembered now, but it was a monster.
5) That weird Beltran play, where his pop up gets dropped and he is awarded third base on the egregious overthrow to first (I thought I would catch it in the *upper bowl*)? Then he forgets that he does have to touch 2nd? Then he scores on a wild pitch? Suddenly we are back in Pee Wee.
6) Bottom of the 5th, the Twins score 7. Lots of Midwest dancing happening around us.
7) Top of the 6th. Not so fast my friends. The Astros load the bases. Then the ballpark moves through three different seasons over the course of just Marwin's at-bat. It starts raining hard enough to scatter the fans. We stay in the concourse for maybe two minutes before returning to our seats. He is *still* batting. I smell a grand slam. It does not come. By the time he grounds out to second, the sun is out and I need to find my sunglasses.
Kids are at the end of their rope. We make it to the 7th inning stretch, but it is dicey. We start for the car. I hate leaving games early, but I want to stay married. On the way out , we hear Grossman's home run. Oh well, it was a nice day at the park.
9) The top of the 8th begins. We are almost out of the stadium, but stop to get a family photo as requested by my parents (big Astros fans). As we finally exit through the gates, we look at a big screen outside the stadium that is showing the game. Altuve gets plunked. Even my wife comments that it must have hurt. Now there are two on and no outs. I say these words: "The score will be 8-5 by the time we get to the car, and the Astros will be winning by the time we get home." I did not say these words spitefully. I had accepted the situation, but was also filled with some weird certainty that the Twins did not have relievers who could get the Astros out.
The picture:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUsat3Ql2rBONeIKAH38WuetQg26jOhLh4ceiE0/?taken-by=estradba10) We get to the car, and I tune the radio to the Twins broadcast. The first words we hear are description of Marwin's 2-run single. It is 8-5.
11) We start the drive home, listening to the broadcast. We drive through some hard rain. The rain delay is announced during Springer's at bat. It is a 20 minute drive home. It is 8-7 as we pull in the driveway.
12) I turn on the TV right after we walk in. The first thing we see is Reddick's 2-run double. It is 9-8. We are home. Houston is now winning. Where can I buy some lottery tickets?
13) I call my Dad, in Houston. We talk about the comeback. I tell him the Astros are likely to keep scoring, as it is difficult to imagine how the Twins bullpen will get outs. I predict the Astros will score at least 15.
Postscript: We happen to traveling to Houston in July to visit with my parents. I am bringing my two daughters, and we have tickets to a couple of Astros games that weekend. The opponent? The Minnesota Twins. My older daughter says she will still be cheering for them. This is good.
